STONE HARBOR ¬– Red flags over green lawns, too much watering may keep things lush and lovely but could lead to hefty fines for the borough. To ensure that doesn’t happen the municipality plans to implement an ordinance later this month to limit when lawns may be sprinkled.
That was some of the news told to members of the Stone Harbor Property Owners Association (formerly the Realty owners Association) at the annual meeting June 8 in the elementary school.
Delivering the news on watering was Councilmember Karen Lane. While water on the island comes from deep aquifers, Lane said the 46 million gallons a month allotted, no more than 230 million gallons annually, relies on scant use in winter months, say 3 million gallons monthly in January and February.
But, come summer, up goes the usage. “In the past couple of years, in July and August we have come dangerously close to the maximum,” Lane said. “If we go over, we face a very severe monetary fine from DEP (Department of Environmental Protection),” she said.
Steps are being taken to get DEP to increase the allocation, something not done in 30 years, she said.
Lane added that DEP was “not a fast moving agency.” Because of that the borough initiated a “Go Green Community Committee” that aims to educate residents, property owners and school children on the need for water conservation, Lane said.
She acknowledged that the voluntary water schedule has worked, and the borough saved “a couple of million gallons.”
“It was brought home very harshly when the water tower was rehabilitated,” Lane said. “We tried to use an interconnect with Avalon, because we had to drain the tower. At 6 a.m., the pressure dropped so low that we would have had to bring in water trucks if there had been a fire, and that was during April and May a rainy time,” said Lane.
The borough had to “jury rig” and have a man at the tower day and night to manually keep pumping to keep up pressure, she added.
Because of that, Lane said, the law, an ordinance, will be introduced at the next borough council meeting to “reduce and restrict the amount of water in sprinkler systems.”
While she lauded those who have “exclusion meters” that track the amount of water drawn out for lawn purposes only, and the water does not flow into the sewer system for treatment.
“Thirty two percent of the water that we use per month is used by the exclusion meters,” Lane said. “Thirty two percent of total water is going to water lawns and shrubs.” She also noted some do not have those meters.
“A fantastic amount of water is put on grass and shrubs,” Lane said.
The ordinance to be introduced the third Tuesday of this month will limit times of watering. Discussed earlier, Lane said council “has a sense of support” for the proposal.
“We need your support. We need you to be careful with water used,” said Lane.
Part of the problem, she noted, is with landscapers, since many owners are absent, and do not know their systems are on, using a lot of water.
“You have to be proactive,” said Lane. “Let them know about rain sensors that monitor humidity in the air and wetness of the soil. It is a great system to use, and it should save you money.” She added some landscapers are “manipulating” systems so they will “water more.”
Monitoring use is part of the borough’s utility clerk’s job. If an owner is 20,000 gallons in excess, a letter will be sent to the owner so they are aware of that water use, Lane said.
Lane urged owners to “be aware of how much you are using in the sprinkler system, and do what you can do to conserve.”
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