Cape Coral urging residents to save water as SWFL experiences severe drought
Cape Coral is urging residents to voluntarily conserve water by watering their lawns no more than once a week as drought is expected to last till May.
"We're about 30 to 40 days out before you'll see regular rainfall each day, and we want to conserve what we have," said Cape Coral Utilities Director Jeff Pearson. "We are currently pumping 16 million gallons a day from the reservoir off of U.S. 41 to supplement what would normally be our supply from rainwater or stormwater."
The two-day watering schedule remains in effect, but residents are being asked to reduce water usage.
Watering days and hours depend on a resident's last number on their home address.
The city allows watering by hand with a garden hose and cut-off nozzle at any time of the day or night.
Drought conditions
According to the United States Geological Survey Drought Monitoring, Southwest Florida is experiencing severe to extreme drought as of Thursday.
Current rainfall is 5 to 6 inches below the seasonal average over the past 30 years, and the city said the lack of rain, record-high temperatures, and the influx of new residents are contributing to the drought conditions.
Almost two-thirds of the water that supplies the city’s irrigation system comes from the city’s 300 miles of freshwater canals.
"Since we're late in the dry season, the canals will drop due to evaporation and from the use of our irrigation system," Pearson said.
Cape Coral faced a similar situation last year, and officials announced a mandatory one-day watering schedule. Pearson said the city is close to those low levels of canal water.
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What is Cape Coral doing to combat the drought?
The city is pumping 16 million gallons from Charlotte County per day into Gator Slough to rehydrate the city's freshwater canals.
"Gator Slough is the canal that pretty much feeds all of the Cape Coral freshwater canals north of Pine Island Road," Pearson said.
Pearson said the city is working on two projects to help against future droughts.
The Fort Myer's Caloosahatchee Connect Project is installing a large-diameter water main under the Caloosahatchee River near Horton Park and next to the Midpoint Bridge that will be completed this year.
"That project is going to deliver more than 1.2 billion gallons of additional water for our irrigation system," Pearson said.
The other project, the Southwest Aggregates Reservoir, has reached 100% engineering design and permitting and will help with canal capacity.
"That project, once complete, will essentially double our capacity and storage capacity in all of the canals that we have now," Pearson said.
Pearson said he expects the city to recover its water levels quickly once consistent rainfall starts in the city.
"If we get at least, you know, two good days of a good rain event, (the canals) will recover very quickly," Pearson said. "But every one of those rain events helps our canal levels and helps the irrigation system to operate correctly."
According to weather.com, Cape Coral has a chance of rain Monday through Thursday.
Luis Zambrano is a Watchdog/Cape Coral reporter for The News-Press and the Naples Daily News. You can reach Luis at Lzambrano@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter @Lz2official.
This article originally appeared on Fort Myers News-Press: Water woes: Cape Coral issues order limiting watering
