After an extra watering, the grass is a bit perkier on University grounds, especially behind the Student Learning Center.

But under Athens-Clarke County’s level three watering restriction policy, put into effect Aug. 11 , the grass can be watered only between midnight and 10 a.m. and only one day a week.

These restrictions apply to everybody, said ACC
Water Conservation Coordinator Steve Dorsch. “All residential, commercial, governmental, institutional properties,” including the University.

However, sprinklers doused the University’s memorial garden outside the second floor entrance to the Student Learning Center at 10:12 a.m. and at 11:09 a.m. Monday – a violation of the watering restrictions.

“There’s no excuse,” said Physical Plant Director Dexter Adams.

“They should not have been on.”

Dorsch clarified the restrictions, saying that a level three drought response restricts watering from 10 a.m. to midnight and allows customers to water at night only once a week based on the last digit of their addresses.

The University does not use the address system, but “campus is divided into six maintenance zones,” said Adams. Those zones each are assigned a watering day.

Adams said the after-hours watering of the memorial garden was “inadvertent.”

“I’ll see what I can do [to fix it],” he said.
Dorsch was unaware of the University’s watering violation.

Before this incident, “we’ve had no problems at all with the University,” said Dorsch.

Penalties for violations are a written warning for the first offense and a $400 fine for the second offense. Penalties for the University are the same as for residents, said Dorsch, and enforcement personnel and sometimes the ACC Police Department patrol the county for violators.

There are a few exceptions. One exception is a 20-day permit that allows residents to water new landscaping.

Dorsch responded that landscaping plans for the University have been “deferred until fall or after the drought.”

Since the heightened restrictions went into effect, “we’ve been catching quite a few [violators],” said Dorsch, but since the University’s violation was not spotted by enforcement officials, it should not be penalized.