News

City renews call to reduce water use

By Lightning Reports, Published: October 20, 2023

As a weeks-long drought persists, Hendersonville officials on Friday renewed their call for customers to conserve water, saying that two weeks into a Stage 2A Water Shortage Alert the city had seen only a "slight reduction" in water consumption.

An escalation from advisory to alert on Oct. 5 was prompted by drought conditions and continued lower-than-normal flow levels on the Mills River, the city said in a news release.

“We are experiencing a drought in our area, and we are urging our customers to be water wise,” said City Manager John Connet. “Our team at Hendersonville Water & Sewer has been diligently monitoring the water levels in the Mills River, and we unfortunately have not received any substantial rain events to replenish the levels in the watershed. We have instituted a Stage 2A Water Shortage Alert to eliminate non-essential water use.”

In a Stage 2A Water Shortage Alert all customers are expected to reduce their water use by employing water use conservation and efficiency measures by 20 percent. If conditions continue to worsen, the utility has the authority to charge fees to customers who are in violation of the ordinance.

“Our water system and water treatment facility are fully operational, but we are continuing to ask our approximately 80,000 water customers to work with us to conserve water,” Utilities Director Adam Steurer said. “Since we issued Water Shortage Advisory on Sept. 28th, our treatment facility operators have seen a slight reduction in water use. We appreciate our customers voluntarily taking steps to conserve, however with levels in the watershed continuing to lessen and with no substantial rain in the forecast, the utility has a responsibility to its customers to upgrade to a Water Shortage Alert to ensure that essential water uses can occur without interruption.”

The city strongly encourages customers to take the following steps: 

• No car washing except by commercial facilities equipped to recycle water;   

• Do not wash down outside areas such as sidewalks, patios, parking lots, service bays, aprons, etc.;    

• Limit lawn and garden watering to only that which is necessary for plants to survive, reusing household water or reclaimed water when possible;    

• Do not leave faucets running while shaving, brushing teeth, or rinsing dishes;    

• Limit flushing of toilets by multiple usage;    

• Limit use of clothes washers and dishwashers, and when used, operate fully loaded;    

• Take showers rather than bathing and limit the duration of showers;    

• The use of disposable and biodegradable dishes is encouraged;    

• The use of flow-restrictive and water-saving devices is encouraged;    

• Limit hours of operation of water-cooled air conditioners;    

• All residents, businesses, and institutions are requested to temporarily delay new landscape work until the water shortage has ended.   
   

Water treatment facility staff are continually monitoring the levels on the Mills River, the weather forecasts, and the amount of treated water that is leaving the plant. Utility staff ask customers to limit their household, commercial and industrial water use to essential uses only with the goal of each water customer reducing use by 20 percent compared to their typical use.