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While this spring’s wet weather hasn’t required much in the way of yard or garden irrigation, Georgians soon might be mired again in a maze of new watering restrictions.

Part of a new state water conservation law will replace the even-odd watering rules that the state Environmental Protection Division has had in place with a new rule that bans outdoor irrigation between the hours of 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. every day.

Gov. Sonny Perdue signed the Georgia Water Stewardship Act of 2010 on Tuesday in an effort to ease negotiations with Alabama and Florida over Georgia’s use of water from the Chattahoochee River and Lake Lanier.

The changes in outdoor watering rules go into effect immediately, said EPD spokesman Kevin Chambers.

“The utilities around the state are still working out what this all means, and as far as we can tell that is going to be the major change to the watering restrictions,” said Marilyn Hall, water conservation director for Athens-Clarke County.

The EPD has required the entire state to follow a nondrought water conservation schedule, which restricted people with odd-numbered addresses to watering on Tuesday, Thursdays and Sundays. People with even-numbered addresses were allowed to water only on Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays.

The new watering rule allows everyone to use irrigation systems every day of the week - except between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m., Chambers said.

“You can also hand-water whenever you want,” Hall said. “But you’re going to have a lot of evaporation during the day, so it’s still the smart thing to water in the early morning or the late afternoon.”

The EPD hasn’t had time to rewrite rules on water use to match the mandates in the new law and probably won’t have new guidelines ready for a few months.

However, the new law trumps EPD and local water system rules, some of which are more restrictive than the new state law.

While the water restrictions included in the Stewardship Act begin immediately, other provisions in the law won’t take effect for a year or more.

All new construction after July 2012 must use low-flow toilets and other water-efficient plumbing fixtures, and apartment-builders must make sure every unit has its own water meter.

The law requires local governments to ramp up incentive programs to encourage conservation and requires utilities to start accounting for the amount of water that leaks from water mains and distribution pipes.

Water Conservation Order Put In Place In Etna

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A mandatory water conservation order has been put in place in the Borough of Etna after a water main break.

The borough manager says a four-inch water service line broke on Oakland Street.

But when crews tried to fix it, a valve snapped so it continued to leak.

As a result, storage tanks were depleted and the leak will slowly continue until repairs can be made.

Crews hope to get the break fixed by morning, but until then they are asking everyone not to use any unnecessary water.

“Don’t use anything unnecessarily. This is still [going to] leak until we can get that equipment in here and even once it comes, there’s a lot of preparation work that has to be done. A hole has to be dug above it, the pipe [has to be] cut, so we don’t want to deplete the storage tanks too much,” Etna Borough Manager Mary Ellen Ramage said.

At one point, officials said 25 homes were without water, but service has since been restored.

Today marks the beginning of our Earth Week or “National Environmental Education Week” and to launch it off properly, I thought I would write about one easy and simple way I found to conserve water in our homes.

It’s called a “Toilet Tank Saver“, it costs only $3.49 for one and it can be installed in any toilet.  It was so easy to “install”.  First, you fill the water saver with tap water to the fill line.  Next, you flush your toilet so all the water out of the tank drains.  Then, you place the water saver into the tank so that less water is needed to refill the toilet tank.  Although this may seem like all too much of an easy task to make a difference in water usage…it actually will be saving our home up to 2 1/2 quarts of water with every flush.  Just think of how many times we flush our toilets each day.  That is A LOT of water saved in one year!!!

A company called New Resources Group sells other unique home utility parts that will help your home reduce energy used and conserve water.  Check out their web site here to see all of their products available and order your toilet saver today!  The earth will thank you for it:)

  “NRCS is seeking applications which will assist producers in using market-based approaches to conservation and innovative technologies that can put conservation on the land,” said Jodi Hastings, NRCS state resource conservationist of Lakewood. “We’re also looking for projects that will find solutions to improve water, soil and air quality; improve nutrient management; enhance wildlife habitat and pollinator populations; and that deal with emerging issues including energy conservation and specialty crops.”

   Applications are due by Monday.

   CIG is a component of NRCS’s Environmental Quality Incentives Program, a voluntary conservation program that provides financial and technical assistance to farmers and ranchers who face threats to soil, water, air and related natural resources on their land.

  Another $20 million is available through the Agricultural Water Enhancement Program.

   The focus of water enhancement activities within the program includes water quality or water conservation plan development.

   Applications are due by May 17.

    For information, contact area NRCS offices or visit the Web sites.

April Is Water Conservation Month

There are a number of things you can do around your home to increase water efficiency and decrease unnecessary waste.

The Rice Soil and Water Conservation District continually advocates for raingardens in the area. Raingardens, such as the one shown here, help minimize the amount of run-off rainwater with chemicals in it entering public waters. (Submitted photo) Beautifying their Dundas property led husband and wife Steve Albers and Cathy Larson to install a raingarden in the fall of 2007. While the garden displays a variety of flowers and plants that attracts butterflies and hummingbirds, it also serves a practical purpose. A raingarden is a shallow depression in the ground that collects rainwater, said Danielle Waldschmidt, stormwater technician with the Rice Soil and Water Conservation District. Raingardens act as a filter to remove harmful chemicals and pollutants. Water that enters a raingarden is either used by the plants or percolates through the soil, refreshing the ground water supply, according to the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. Dick Huston, a representative of the SWCD’s board of supervisors, said raingardens play a key role in keeping Minnesota water sources as clean as possible. He said for every homeowner who uses chemicals in their yards to get the greenest grass, those chemicals often wash away to the gutters, sewers and eventually, water. “Stopping that and putting it in the soil … the soil will help bleach that out and prevent that going into our lakes and rivers,” he said. But it’s not only raingardens that can help mitigate issues with the quality of water. Steve Pahs, district manager of SWCD, said rain barrels, a specially-constructed barrel aimed at collecting rainwater that pours out roof gutters, can help as well. What’s best about rain barrels, Pahs said, is what’s good for the environment is also good for the pocketbooks of those who use the rain barrels. “They help reduce the amount of water that runs off buildings and contribute to flash flooding on streams and lake levels,” he said. “They also, for the home owner, save them money because they don’t have to pay for that water.” For those who do a great deal of watering around the house, whether the yard, plants or garden, the water collected by the rain barrels can help save on the water bill. Beyond that, when water restrictions are put in place and residents are limited to the amount of water they can use, a rain barrel can come in handy for yellow grass. The water is typically better for the plants, too, Pahs said, because the water isn’t as hard as the water being pumped from the ground. According to the DNR, rainwater is naturally “soft,” because it doesn’t have chlorine, lime or calcium in it like municipal water does. An update to the state’s impaired water list shows there are 3,049 impairments on 388 rivers and 647 lakes, according to the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency. Impaired water is defined as water not meeting state water quality standards based on various criteria, including clarity and algae growth. According to the most recent data provided by the MPCA, Rice County has 29 impairments. Huston says the more raingardens and rain barrels spread throughout the area, the better the chance the waters have to improve. “They’re really important,” he said.

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TORONTO — According to the Canadian Water Attitudes Study, water conservation efforts in Canada are declining, The Vancouver Sun reported.

Conducted by the Royal Bank and Unilever, the study showed that almost 80 percent of Canadians make a concerted effort to conserve water, but 50 percent of the country leaves the tap running while washing dishes and 20 percent hose down their driveways, according to the story.

“Canadians say they are much more concerned about the availability and quantity of fresh water than any other natural resource, yet their efforts to conserve water are actually decreasing,” said Bob Sandford, the chairman of Canadian Partnership Initiative of the UN Water for Life Decade.

Now is as good a time as any to fix that leaky faucet — it’s “Fix a Leak Week”!

In recognition of Governor Schwarzenegger’s request that Californian’s step up their water conservation efforts — the City of Fresno is reminding residents to cap those leaks.

On average — more than 10-thousand gallons of water is wasted per household every year due to leaky faucets and toilets.

Simple ways to save water include:

* Replacing old toilets with low flow toilets and/or adjust toilet floats.

* Watering landscapes only when necessary and avoid over-watering.

* Using automatic shut off nozzles on all garden hoses.

* Teaching children to turn off the water when brushing their teeth.

Much of the nation may be snow-weary, but farmers and ranchers who rely on winter snowpack in the northern Rockies for irrigation during the dry months of the growing season could face water shortages this summer unless more snow arrives soon.

Wet spring and summer conditions in 2008 and 2009 helped pull the region out of a decade-long drought, but now hydrologists are once again reporting below-average mountain snowpack throughout much of the northern Rockies.

As of early March, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor, snowpack was at or near record low levels in many locations from northeastern Utah northward along and near the Idaho border with Montana and Wyoming.

In Spokane, Wash., the winter of 2009-10 has been the least snowy on record, with a mere 13.7 inches of snowfall recorded so far, according to the National Weather Service. The city usually averages more than 46 inches of snow each winter. Experts are concerned that it could be a long summer for irrigators unless the region experiences the kinds of snowfalls that have buried other parts of the country in recent weeks.

MID-WINTER: Sierra snowpack below average

LAST SPRING: Colorado’s snowpack slides despite storms

“There’s not much time to make it up,” said hydrologist Phil Morrisey of the Natural Resource Conservation Service in Idaho. “Even an abundant snowfall in March would be unlikely to make much of a difference this late in the season.”

Some river basins in eastern Washington, Idaho, Wyoming and Montana are below 50% of their average seasonal snowpack for this time of year, according to Conservation Service snow monitoring data

In the lower Yakima River basin in south-central Washington, snowpack is at about 80% of normal. Conservation Service hydrologist Scott Pattee said four of five reservoirs there will not fill to capacity this spring, which could mean trouble for farmers.

“It’s going to mean water rationing for junior water-rights holders,” Pattee said. Junior water rights are those issued most recently, he explained. Senior water-rights holders have first rights to irrigation waters. According to hydrologists across the region, most Rocky Mountain river basins typically accumulate 80% to 85% of their seasonal snow by March 1. They said April 1 is when most states in the region reach the peak snowpack.

Long-term forecasts suggest that warm and dry conditions will persist in the final month of the snowy season, meaning many areas have already reached their peak for the season, Pattee said.

The same El Niño climate pattern that brought loads of much-needed moisture to drought-stricken areas through the Southwest, including the typically dry deserts of Southern California and eastern Arizona, is to blame for the drier than usual winter in the northern tier, Pattee said.