LAWTON, Okla_Big changes are coming to Lawton in 30 days, and they affect how often you'll be allowed to water your lawn.
The Lawton City Council approved a new water conservation plan which goes into action next month. It still has three stages, voluntary conservation, mandatory restriction and then a prohibitive ban. But, the city will no longer rely on the level at Lake Lawtonka to determine the stage we're in. They created a new formula that also takes the levels of Lakes Waurika and Ellsworth into consideration.
Seven News was at the City Council Meeting and was able to meet with Lawton's Public Works Director to get more information on the new plan and how it affects you.
Under the new plan we would already be in Stage 2 of conservation, mandatory restriction. Meaning we could only water our lawns on specific days. Under the old plan we never even moved out of Stage 1.
Public Works Director Jerry Ihler is concerned, "We've never experienced droughts like we're experiencing now, and I'm not a weatherman and I can't forecast... if it continues we need to be conserving."
The water conservation plan we've had in place for the past ten years was okay, but didn't really give us the idea of what was going on in the big picture.
Ihler says the old plan gave us, "A false sense of relief if you will, that we're not in a crisis mode or we don't need to conserve water because the elevation of Lawtonka is above that point where you would trigger it well...that water that used to be in Ellsworth and Waurika is now in Lawtonka."
The new plan will take into consideration the levels of all three lakes. The biggest change affecting the people of Lawton is when these new stages kick in.
Stage 1, Voluntary Restriction, starts when the total water available reaches 75%, Stage 2, Mandatory Restriction, kicks in at 60% and Stage 3, the prohibition of watering, kicks in at 50%.
Ihler says, "It's important to understand the need to conserve. We've just gone through two of the worst drought years. In fact, last year's drought was the worst on record for Southwest Oklahoma."
Again, these changes will go into effect in 30 days. Violations of any restrictions in Stage 2 or 3 will result in a fine. The fines will remain the same as those that existed under the previous plan.
The vote also changed the hours of the day people can water their lawns. The new allowed watering hours, under any stage of the new plan, are midnight to 9 AM.
