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(Undated) -- Residents of 10 southwest Iowa communities must restrict their water use, due to water pressure issues, which began May 25th. The communities are: Avoca, Portsmouth, Westphalia, Kirkman, Tenant, Exira, Panama, Persia, and Brayton. The communities are located in Audubon, Cass, Harrison, and northern Pottawattamie, and Shelby counties. Council Bluffs is not part of the restriction.
Municipal, residential, agricultural, commercial, and industrial users will be required to observe the following mandatory reduction measures:
- No outdoor watering or irrigation of any kind between the hours of 8:00 AM to 8:00 PM. No watering or irrigation of lawns whatsoever. Watering of flowers, vegetable gardens, trees or shrubs less than four years old, and new seedlings and sod is permitted once per week, with an application not to exceed one inch and only between 8:00 PM to 8:00 AM.
- No car washing is allowed, except at commercial establishments that provide that service as their only means of income. In these cases, hours of use will be restricted to 8:00 AM to 8:00 PM.
- No water shall be used to fill private swimming pools, children’s wading pools, or similar articles.
- No water shall be used to clean streets, driveways, sidewalks, etc.
- Large-volume water users, including industries, motels, hotels, eating establishments, and livestock confinements, may be requested to scale back services and/or production.
- Schools are strongly urged to cancel their physical education activities and inter-scholastic competitions that require showers or attract crowds and take other actions to reduce water consumption.
The Avoca Treatment Plant is working with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources to resolve the situation.