California is experiencing a severe drought. With a hot summer coming, Governor Newsom has called on all Californians to increase their water conservation efforts and reduce water use by 20 percent. Conservation is important, because we don't know if 2023 will be dry and if water supplies will be limited.

We're asking everyone to pitch in and do their part to stop waste and use less water. Here are some tips you can follow around your home and business to help our water stewardship efforts. 

Per the Governor's Executive Order on March 28, 2022, the City of Lincoln has moved to Stage 2 of its Water Shortage Contingency Plan. Visit our Water Shortage Contingency Plan page to learn more about the actions included in stages 1 and 2.

You can find additional tips on PCWA's Smart Water Use page .

 

Actions customers can take outdoors and indoors

  • Stress your lawn and save your trees. Reduce each sprinkler cycle by two minutes to achieve an instant water savings of 20 percent. But remember to take special care of your trees. Follow this link to learn tree watering tips.
  • Check soil moisture before turning on sprinklers. Stop by our main office to pick up a free moisture meter today.
  • Replace older sprinklers with more efficient nozzles.
  • Upgrade to a WaterSense-labeled, weather-based sprinkler timer.
  • Water plants early in the morning to reduce evaporation.
  • Check for and fix leaks. The most common type of leak inside a home is a toilet leak, which can waste 200 gallons of water per day. That’s enough to wash seven loads of laundry every day for a month.
  • Add a layer of mulch on top of soil, 2-3 inches thick. Mulch is like icing on a cake, because it keeps the soil moist the way icing keeps a cake moist.
  • Cycle and soak to prevent runoff. Some sprinkler systems apply water faster than the ground will absorb, causing water to run off your landscape into the street and gutter. Cycle and soak is a process of running your sprinklers in shorter increments spaced out over a period of time to allow for better absorption by the soil.
  • Adjust sprinklers to reduce overspray.