For the past few weeks, the Moorestown Township Council has been discussing the adoption of the state Department of Environmental Protection’s water conservation ordinance per the Administrative Consent Order, and further discussion took place at council’s workshop held on the evening of Monday, Aug. 8. This ordinance would contain water-saving provisions to help Moorestown reduce its water consumption.
“As far as the water conservation ordinance goes, we discussed at the last meeting that the initial recommendation from public works was to have a window in the evening to allow people to water,” Scott Carew, township manager, said. “As part of the ACO with the NJDEP, we are going to be amending our water conservation ordinance, [it] currently is an odd/even day ordinance and it currently is only done once the township manager declares an emergency, which happens every April or May and has every year since I believe the 1980s.”
If council adopts the state’s conservation ordinance, the new ordinance would therefore always be in effect, and instead of having residents water their lawns on either odd or even days, the new ordinance would mandate everyone have two specific days to water each week. Additionally, the township’s amended ordinance would make it so residents are assigned specific days to water based off the town’s four trash zones.
While council has expressed its approval of these trash-zone designated watering days, the only decision it needed to revisit involved the time windows that would specify when watering would be allowed. Even though the state only allows for two days of watering during times of water supply shortages, it wishes to prevent 24-hour watering during the two days.
As of right now, Carew and Township Attorney Anthony Drollas Jr. reported at the workshop that they have been reviewing the ordinances other towns have in effect, and it appears offering two windows during the day is the standard and most effective method.
“I believe [the windows are] 7 a.m. to 10 a.m. in the morning and 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. in the evening,” Carew said.
Initially, council had concerns about the watering window in the evening but decided it would be ideal for people who need to put out their sprinklers after work. Additionally, there were fears that watering in the morning could potentially coincide and conflict with people taking showers, but the public works committee believes that as long as the town has compliance with the zoning mandates, this should not be a problem.
“The key is getting people to be compliant with the zones. So with whatever zone you’re in, on those days that would be the times you’re allowed to water,” Carew said.
Councilwoman Stacey Jordan expressed her concerns that a lot of landscaping companies prefer to water earlier in the morning than the watering window proposed by the DEP. Although Carew commented that he didn’t know why exactly the DEP chose its recommended times, he agreed that, from a watering standpoint, earlier in the morning would be better.
Ultimately, even if council were to move the morning window to an earlier time, residents would still only be allotted a three-hour window. Carew plans to check with the DEP to see if an earlier window, specifically 5 a.m. to 8 a.m., would be possible.
In other news:
• Council approved an ordinance on first reading appropriating an additional $7,175,000 to be used for upgrades of the Kings Highway Water Treatment Plant, together with all related expenses.
• Council approved a bond ordinance on first reading appropriating $370,000 and authorizing the issuance of $180,500 in bonds or notes for the construction of a dog park.
• Council approved a resolution authorizing the funding in the amount of $30,000 from the “Moorestown Open Space, Recreation, Farmland and Historic Preservation Trust Fund” to be used for Environmental Improvements at Strawbridge Lake.
