SPOKANE, Wash. — The start of June brought new water restrictions to the City of Spokane. Along with the new restrictions came plenty of questions too.
KREM 2 verified what is true about watering and what is false.
First, we can Verify, yes, there are water restrictions in place in Spokane right now. The Spokane City Council passed the new Drought Response Measures Ordinance in 2022. The new rules restrict water usage between June 1 through October 1 each year.
You may have seen this image, shared by the City of Spokane.
It lists restrictions on hours for watering and suggests an outdoor watering schedule broken down by even and odd addresses. However, parts of this graphic may be misleading- so, let’s break it down.
We can Verify that it is true that watering is not allowed during the day between 10 am and 6 pm. Houses are also limited to watering just four days a week.
However, while the city suggests an even/odd watering schedule, the city code leaves it open for homeowners to choose the days that work best for them. Although the city code suggests limiting your watering to two hours a day, there is no limit to how long you water.
Watering Exemptions
KREM 2 viewer Deb wondered if golf courses, parks and schools are under these same guidelines. The City of Spokane does offer exemptions to the Parks Department and also city residents. Some of those exemptions include:
- The Parks Department shall continue its efforts to upgrade park infrastructure as funding becomes available to comply with the above mandatory and voluntary measures. The department shall be exempt from these measures when the Parks Director informs City Council in writing that an exemption is necessary for the purposes of watering trees, watering the remaining parks with non-automated irrigation systems, allowing for the establishment of newly-planted landscape, mitigating fire risk in wildland-urban interface areas, operating pools and splashpads, and operating public golf courses/sports program facilities.
- The Public Works and Utilities Department may grant to city residents reasonable exemptions from these measures for the purposes of watering community/personal vegetable gardens, trees located either within the public right-of-way or on private property, to allow for the establishment of newly-planted landscape, or in wildland-urban interface areas to mitigate wildfire risk.
- The Public Works and Utilities Department and Park Department shall, no later than 180 days after the effective date of this section, publish standards and requirements specifying the process for seeking additional exemptions under this paragraph and the process and timelines for approval, rejection, and, if necessary, appeals from rejections of applications for exemptions under this paragraph.
WATCH RELATED: Spokane City Council to consider water restrictions
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