Outdoor Water Use Banned
This indefinite ban is an emergency restriction required to conserve water supply, according to the city.
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Citing hot temperatures and drought conditions, Highland Park has instituted a ban on all outdoor water use for all water supply customers in Highland Park, Bannockburn, Deerfield, Lincolnshire, the Glenbrook Sanitary District and Fort Sheridan.
According to a Village of Northbrook spokesperson, the water ban does not affect Northbrook residents.
The indefinite ban comes two weeks after an even/odd sprinkling ban. It's been instituted to ensure that water is available for public safety needs, according to Highland Park Water Plant Superintendent Don Jensen. Handheld sprinkling is still allowed.
"We're at a point where we have no more capacity left," Jensen told Patch on Thursday. "Rains… have failed to materialize, water demands continue to climb."
Water needs to be available for showering, bathing, toilet flushing, as well as firefighting, Jensen said.
"Those things are far more important than green lawns."
The last time the city banned all outdoor water use was in 2005, as a result of similar weather conditions. Rain came soon after, and the ban didn't last long, though Jensen said it was quite effective at the time. The total ban is the plant's last line of defense, according to Jensen.
"This is the last arrow in our quiver," Jensen said.
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Anne
2:18 pm on Thursday, July 5, 2012
I've never watered my lawn in 20 yrs. It seems to be just fine year after year.
Mark
3:14 pm on Thursday, July 5, 2012
Sounds like the city of Highland Park needs a better water procurement plan. The world's largest body of freshwater is just a mile away...
Richard Heineman
4:19 pm on Thursday, July 5, 2012
Highland Park has it's own water plant and we supply a number of other communities. Currently we are pumping water at capacity. The city council is currently discussing expansion options. The cost of this might be as much as $30 million. They want to be very careful with our money and are therefore carefully researching all the options.
S
9:20 am on Friday, July 6, 2012
Perhaps you're thinking of Lake Superior, which is the world's largest freshwater lake by surface area. Unless you're referring to the Great Lakes collectively, which is the largest surface freshwater system.
Daniel Krudop
4:00 pm on Thursday, July 5, 2012
Somebody upstairs didn't get the message about not watering.
David Greenberg
5:21 pm on Thursday, July 5, 2012
As I drove around HP today - it was readily apparent that the:
PARK DISTRICT OF HIGHLAND PARK didn't get the message about the bans that have been in effect - they were running all of their sprinklers at the tennis courts over at Sunset Park.
The strip mall owner on Central Ave. across from the Post Office - they were running their sprinkler on the lawn too...
There's no reason for any of this - there's plenty of signs around town giving adequate notice, and it's been the City Ordinance for a while now that you can't water during the day anyway (even if there's no ban), so to drive the point home, I'd give these people one warning, then I'd ticket them and shut their water off until they paid a $500 fine.
gena ellis
7:16 am on Friday, July 6, 2012
Fort Sheridan didn't get message either. Sprinkler system going yesterday.
Bob Levi
9:22 am on Friday, July 6, 2012
So what's new? Some people, especially certain politicians, just think the laws don't apply to them.
RB
9:27 am on Friday, July 6, 2012
The North Shore Entitlement Defense covers lots of behavior.
RonnieTheLimoDriver
9:59 am on Friday, July 6, 2012
Lets make sure this is clear. There is no problem with the supply of water. There is still plenty of water in the lake, despite the drought. In fact, we have heard nothing about low lake levels. The problem is efficiently getting the water out of the lake and into our homes and businesses. The HP pump is overwhelmed and cant keep up with the demand. This is what happens when we let the govt. be in charge of providing us goods and services outside of normal government services. A private business would say great, demand is up, lets sell some more water. The government answer is, "Oh, no, lets ration." I do not like the government telling me how and when I can use a product that I am paying good money for, outside of reasonable safety restrictions. I especially don't like when the government does not apply its own rules to itself, such as the park district in HP watering despite the ban. A new home was built down the street from me recently, and since the new owners are moving in shortly, the builder could wait no longer and put in the sod. In this heat, the sod will be trashed in days without water. That is not a win for anybody.
David Greenberg
12:30 pm on Friday, July 6, 2012
The issue is that our plant could keep up with our demand, but we've chosen to sell water to other communities - and so then we have to add their demand into what we produce. It can be a real challenge to stay abreast of what their development is, and scale our capacity accordingly.
Waterworks items are readily available in some parts, but others - such as pumps, can be a constrained supply and may be produced to order - which means you wait a couple of months for the item to get produced, shipped in (and it's not UPS - it's typically one of those flatbed semi trucks), then installed, tested, tweeked, and finally turned on.
If you have an capacity issue in the interim, you need to do things to limit the usage - watering lawns, washing cars, spraying down the tennis courts - they're all nice, but if I have the choice between flushing my toilet and drinking water - I can easily live without watering my lawn, etc.
So a ban is the right thing to do until we can get over the capacity issue.
As for not applying the ban to other units of government like the Park District. It most certainly does apply to the Park District - they either have a misinformed, but well-intentioned employee. OR, they're choosing to ignore it based on some arrogant and misguided belief that they don't have to follow the City Ordinance because they're a governmental district (cf: Wilmette Park v. Wilmette).
Bob Levi
10:58 am on Friday, July 6, 2012
Ronnie: Might I suggest that you take some jugs and bottles down to the lake and fill them up. You can then have the City cancel your water service and save lots of money. However, you might consider any added costs for doctors and hospitals after you consumed some tainted water from Lake Michigan. I wonder if the City has considered selling naming rights to the HP water treatment facility to offset modernization costs. The RonnieTheLimoDriver Water Filtration Plant sounds cool, especially on a hot day. ;0}
RonnieTheLimoDriver
11:34 am on Friday, July 6, 2012
I already have plans to build my own competing water system. If you sign up now, Ill give you 10% off. I just need an upfront deposit. In all seriousness, if you or I decided to cancel our service, and drill a well, we could never get permits. As a result, there really is no competition, outside of getting jugs of water from the lake as you suggest. Even then, most of the lakefront in HP is private or restricted access, so I would probably get a trespassing ticket along the way. I guess I could go to the public beach, but then I need a permit to park.
Molly
11:25 am on Friday, July 6, 2012
Have any tickets been issued for incorrect water usage?
Andrew Meintzer
12:14 pm on Wednesday, July 11, 2012
Wow. Only in this country would people complain and blame the evil govt about not being able to water their precious lawns. kinda pathetic
J
11:25 am on Thursday, July 12, 2012
B'NAI Torah didn't get the message either as we watch them water from their lawns all day..it is so sad to see the water all puddled from the overwatering when the majority of people are following the rules.