City of Russell

RUSSELL–The city of Russell revised its Water Conservation Plan during the Tuesday, July 21, city council meeting.

The revisions to the Water Conservation Plan do not change the water restrictions currently in place.

According to the Russell City Facebook page, the newly revised Water Conservation Plan includes a water use conservation goal, a long-term water use efficiency plan, a drought / emergency response plan, and provisions for monitoring, evaluating and revising the plan.

There are three major changes from the old plan within the Drought/Emergency Response Section:

a. Moving from four (4) stages to three (3) stages. The old plan had four stages: two voluntary conservation stages and two regulated conservation stages. The new plan has one voluntary conservation stage and two regulated stages.
b. The conditions of supply and demand with accompanying triggers in each of the three stages have been updated to be clearer, reflect current operational practices, and include the availability of Big Creek.
c. In the new plan, guidelines to terminate each stage are enumerated.

The current water restrictions in Russell are:

1. Waste of Water is prohibited. This shall include permitting water to escape down a gutter, ditch, or other surface drain, and also failure to repair a controllable leak of water due to defective plumbing;
2. Outdoor watering for residential and public grounds for gardens, lawns, trees, shrubs, water gardens, plants, parks, golf courses and playing fields is prohibited except for one (1) day per calendar week which shall for each user be that property’s sanitation pickup day as designated by the City. Watering on such day is permitted only before 10:00 a.m. and after 9:00 p.m. If such customer has multiple sanitation pickup days in a week then outdoor watering shall be permitted on only the first sanitation pickup day of the week for such customer;
3. Filling or refilling residential above and/or below ground swimming pools is prohibited;
4. Washing of motor vehicles, boats and trailers on residential or public property is prohibited;
5. Washing of motor vehicles, boats and trailers on commercial or industrial property is prohibited except for commercial or industrial vehicles used in the operation of such business and washed as an ordinary and common practice in the operation of business, and except for the washing of vehicles at commercial truck and/or car washes;
6. Washing of the exterior of any building or structure on any grounds is prohibited; and
7. Industrial and commercial users shall not water their lawns or non-commercial trees, shrubs and plants. Trees, shrubs and plants held for sale by commercial and retail sellers may be watered.
8. Industrial users of water are required to reduce their consumption by 25%.

Anyone with questions about Russell’s updated Water Conservation Plan should call the Russell City Building at (785) 483-6311.