Everyone can water on Tuesdays and Saturdays as Mesa district eases rules

The Mesa Water District board of directors eased the district’s outdoor watering limitations, voting unanimously Thursday to permit all ratepayers to water on Tuesdays and Saturdays instead of only on Saturdays or not at all.

The changes are effective immediately.

Watering will be permitted before 8 a.m. and after 5 p.m. It will not be allowed during rainfall or 48 hours afterward.

In December, the district called for public agencies, condominiums, apartments and businesses to stop outdoor watering. Single-family households could water on Saturdays.

“We want to thank everyone for their efforts to conserve water during this difficult time,” Mesa Water President Shawn Dewane said in a statement Friday. “The efforts of the community helped us avoid the $10,000-per-day fine that would otherwise have been imposed on the district by the State Water Resources Control Board.”

Officials said the new rules come as Mesa Water is on track to meet its drought conservation goals by the end of the month. The district was required by the state to cut water use by 20% from June through February, compared with those months in 2013.

Mesa Water is applying to have its conservation mandate diminished by 8 percentage points, to 12%, through October, again compared with the same months in 2013. The district hopes state regulators will give Mesa Water credit for its supply from Orange County’s groundwater basin and the Mesa Water Reliability Facility, which pumps from a deep underground aquifer.

In May, the district is expected to allow three watering days — Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays — until October, when it would go back to Tuesdays and Saturdays. In December, it could restrict watering to Saturdays only.