Water District asks for More Conservation

POWDERSVILLE - In light of the continued drought across the Upstate, the Powdersville Water District recently issued a notice to all customers to step up their efforts to conserve water.

At the August meeting of the S.C. Drought Committee, several additional counties, including Anderson County were added to the "extreme" drought category.

Mandatory water restrictions were not included in the committee's actions.

However, Powdersville Water District General Manager Dyke Spencer said, "Regardless of their decision, our customers need to realize that we all need to practice water conservation diligently at this point.

"If rainfall remains scarce into September, mandatory restrictions may be inevitable," Spencer said. "If customers proactively strive to cut their daily water use by 30 percent now, they will be much better prepared for mandatory restrictions should they become necessary."

If mandatory restrictions are ordered, customers will be forced to conserve water or they can expect to pay more.

This requirement is part of the District's Drought Ordinance and Response Plan that was approved by the S.C. Department of Natural Resources in 2004.

Under mandatory requirements, the ordinance establishes a three-tiered water rate that increases significantly as customer consumption increases.

"If customers choose to ignore conservation totally, they will see their water bill possibly double or triple if we have to implement this ordinance," Spencer said. "We would much rather see our customers posture themselves for the worst now and save themselves the expense and conserve this precious resource now."

Many water saving tips are listed on the District's web site at www.powdersvillewaterdistrict.com.

Powdersville Water has three separate sources of water that serve the system - Anderson Regional Joint Water System, Easley Combined Utilities and the Greenville Water System - which has helped the district avoid implementing mandatory water restrictions up to this point.

"We do not want to scare our customers into thinking that we are running out of water," Spencer said. "We merely want to encourage our customers to help the cause and themselves at the same time. It is the right thing to do."