By Scott

June 20, 2007 3:45 PM | Link to this

My excuse - Sonny is praying for rain. He’s omnipotent, and I know his prayers will be answered.

By Scott

June 20, 2007 3:49 PM | Link to this

So far, I haven’t broken any rules. However, with only getting one day a week now (Sunday), I may have to soon. If my lawn maintenance company comes early in a week, puts down fertilizer, and there is no rain in the forecast, I’ll water my lawn to keep the fertilizer from burning it up. I’ll just take my chances.

By Fay

June 20, 2007 4:48 PM | Link to this

When in a true drought situation the use of water for non-necessary items like pressure washing by anyone should be baned. By the same token those companies that water their lawn from a well or lake shouldn’t be able to do that either as it lowers the level of the ground water table. Water is a precious commodity that we can not live without.

By Tim

June 20, 2007 5:03 PM | Link to this

What we really need is a way to monitor per person consumption of water versus banning one particular usage. I don’t feel even a tinge of guilt when watering my back yard while my neighbors are running half loaded dishwashers and taking 30 minute showers. I conserve water always by hand washing dishes, keeping showers to under 5 minutes and using low flow plumbing fixtures. Thirty minutes of outdoor watering 3-4 times a week is nothing compared to how much the rest of the city wastes.

By ByTim's Mommy

June 20, 2007 6:12 PM | Link to this

ByTim…So you know just how full your neighbors dishwashers are when they run them and how long they are in the shower? I suppose you also know that they don’t have low flow fixtures in their homes, as you do? Do you have special powers or are you the neighborhood’s Peeping Tim? Or is it really that you believe you are free to use water in whatever way you please as long as you are paying for it? Seems you a classic case of rationalizing admittedly illegal water use by pointing out what you suspect to be equal misuse and wastfulness by your particular neighbors. Even if you are correct about your neigbors, it seems that it might take a tremendous number of dishwasher cycles and many 30 minute showers to equal what you are admittedly using illegally in your yard. You don’t sound like you really know what your are doing with your yard watering either. Experts, including those regularly quoted in the AJC, say its better for your lawn and plants to receive a single deep weekly watering, rather than multiple moderate waterings. Better yet, plant the things that are more drought resistant and don’t need watering every 2 days. Act right and live with the outdoor watering restrictions like everyone else. Thankfully most folks will follow the law and go about changing it, if and when they have a better idea.

By Tim

June 20, 2007 6:22 PM | Link to this

No, I am only making assumptions based upon the visible signs of other’s consumptuous waste. I also don’t have a timed sprinkler system I can set to run during the hours alotted nor do I wish to let water run from midnight til 10. The point I’m making is exactly what you just said… I don’t know what my neighbors are doing but by the same token they don’t know what I am doing. Alotting a quantity of water per person and allowing the choice of what to use it for even though not fesible in this society is the rational solution.

By zombieboy

June 20, 2007 6:34 PM | Link to this

Regarding the watering scofflaws….they are steaings the water from us and Mother Earth and should be punished to the fullest extent of the law.

Execution would be too good for some.

By Lyrazel

June 20, 2007 6:48 PM | Link to this

Maybe its time home owners began investigating gray water systems (recycled water from washers, dishwashers, showers) and drought-conscious landscaping techniques. Why wait for the government or its tickets and why rat on the neighbors? If anything the restrictions in communities must be changed so that the traditional grass lawn is no longer mandatory and developers put in landscaping that is drought resistant. Stop blaming others. The drought will only get worse the more we pave unrestricted: 50 acres a day…maybe its time to use common sense in GA for everyone’s benefit.

By Full of Excuses

June 20, 2007 6:50 PM | Link to this

Want good and valid excuses? I live alone, and shower every other day, therefore, on the days I don’t shower, I feel I have the right to water my grass with that saved water. Also, I only use my dishwasher about once every two weeks because I eat out a lot, and don’t have many dishes to wash. That allows me even MORE water to irrigate my lawn. The same goes with laundry. Where a family of 4 may do laundry (some, several loads) daily, and I only do laundry about once a week, I feel I have the right to use all that water I am saving. If I can’t, then I will use that water to wash 3 glasses and one plate, to do a load of laundry with 3 items in it (full water capacity in the washer) and take 2, 2 hr. hours showers daily. (Yes, I have an over-sized water heater that allows me plenty of hot water.)

By Grammaw

June 20, 2007 6:57 PM | Link to this

I don’t care what they say…when my 4 y.o. granddaughter comes over to Grammaw’s to swim in her wading pool that I have for her, by golly, I am going to fill it up. I am also going to empty it afterwards to keep mosquitoes from breeding in it, and refill it the next time she visits (which is every week-end). I have a 6’ privacy fence around my backyard, so no one is going to see it unless they know to look for it. I save water everywhere else, so I don’t feel one bit of guilt when I fill her little wading pool.

By Opinionated One

June 20, 2007 9:51 PM | Link to this

When you start paying for your home water by the gallon, like gas, you will think about how you are wasting water now. Using gray water to water your grass is against federal law. Ask any camper, this is what the park rangers tell us. Everyone should try to help with this problem, or we all will be without water.

By Jeff in Roswell

June 20, 2007 10:18 PM | Link to this

This is precisely why I laid Zoysia sod last year. Yeah, it gets a little brown when dry but, that stuff will green up overnight with the rain we’ve gotten lately.

Opinionated One LOL! How do you happen to pay for your water? I pay mine by the gallon and so doesn’t everybody else I know. Do they charge you by how many plumbing fixtures you have? ROFL!

By .

June 20, 2007 11:08 PM | Link to this

I have a brand new landscape so I am exempt for the next 30 days but I don’t water if I don’t need to. With all the rain we’ve had the past two weeks I’ve only watered once.

Now, I am in Atlanta City watershed not Forsyth, but we have the same restriction.

I’ve got a lot of shade because I live in an old city neighborhood so my place doesn’t get as hot as some of the burb houses do.

I mulch the junk out of the garden beds to keep the moisture in.

I’ve got a fairly small yard, living in the city. Nothing like my old acre when I lived in the burbs. More like my entire lot is .25 acre. So in the front I’ve eliminated almost all the grass lawn except for a walk through. I did this by making the rest a big garden bed (heavily mulched). All the the plants that are in there, except the hydrangeas, are drought resistant.

In those garden beds I’ve set up an irrigation system with soaker hoses under the mulch so that I optimize the water I use.

But once my 30 days are up I will not be cheating on the ban.

Will I tattle? Not unless a violator is really really asking for it. And then I would put a note on their door letting them know that a neighbor has noticed and will call if correction action is not taken and ask that if they fall into an exemption to please make it obvious….

By .

June 20, 2007 11:14 PM | Link to this

Opinionated One….gray water is not illegal for watering lawns…you’ve got that mixed up with blackwater….been camping a lot…

According to wiki:

Greywater, sometimes spelled graywater, grey water or gray water and also known as sullage, is non-industrial wastewater generated from domestic processes such as washing dishes, laundry and bathing. Greywater comprises 50-80% of residential wastewater. Greywater is distinct from blackwater in the amount and composition of its chemical and biological contaminants (from feces or toxic chemicals).

So use all the graywater you want on your lawn!

By Joan

June 21, 2007 8:57 AM | Link to this

My lawn isn’t as important to me as the trees. I water the trees on my alloted days. I fear that a very cold winter will snap the trees. The grass will grow again next year.

Funny though, the grass is dying, but the weeds are flourishing!!!!

I have container gardens on all three patios, and they get watered just about every other day. I use leftover water from the shower.

I also have a wading pool for my dogs. That gets filled up on my alloted days to water too. They use it to cool off in the late afternoon, and it’s a giant water bowl for them too.

By Andrew

June 21, 2007 4:20 PM | Link to this

WHY WASTE PRECIOUS WATER ON YOUR FREAKING LAWN? DO YOU REALLY WANT TO GET TO THE POINT WHERE WE’RE FORCED TO ONLY FLUSH OUR TOILETS ONCE A DAY? If green grass is that important to you then catch rain water from your roof and redistribute it. Your A/C also produces plenty of water. If you don’t mind using water with deterent in it (and by law they have to be somewhat enviromentally friendly) harvest the waste water of your washing machine. For anything that is eaten, only use fresh water though. (Note: Food producing plants are exempt from the watering ban.)

By doinou

June 25, 2007 1:54 PM | Link to this

Home depot on Tilly Mill Road parking lot was flooded Saturday. It looked like someone from the Nursery section left the water on.

By BeerDrinker

June 25, 2007 6:59 PM | Link to this

I don’t wash dishes, I drive 15miles to IKEA twice a week to buy new plates and glasses. I don’t drink any water, only beer, which I drive to get everyday. I don’t take showers. And I buy new clothes every weekend at the outlet mall about 30miles away. And I go to the bathroom in the common woods in my apartment complex. So I use about 0 gallons of water a year. And with all the H2O coming out of the back of my car I am actually creating water.

So because I have a net supply of water to the ATL region I also continuously run my sink and dump it off my apartment balcony.

By hornet

June 28, 2007 8:52 AM | Link to this

Kudos to BeerDrinker for showing the stupidity and arrogance of the “me” generation. I hope the water runs out in August and people have to pee on their precious lawns to keep them alive.

By dirtydog

June 29, 2007 2:43 PM | Link to this

My dog needs a bath. It’s ok if I wash it in the bathtub, but if I wash it on my deck outside I’m breaking the law.

To hornet: everyone knows if you pee on your lawn it will kill the grass, but it works wonders for the azaleas!