The Water Conservation Plan is an annual plan that determines how residents can use water.
Stage one of the plan began May 1 and will continue through Sept. 30.
"Stage one doesn't apply any sort of restrictions. What it does is it tries to make people conscience of their water usage and ask them to voluntarily conserve," City Official Hilary Shine said.
The city hopes they don't have to move into further stages of the plan during the months it is in place.
"The only time in 16 years that we have had to go to a further stage in the plan was when we had a water line break," Shine said.
Killeen has provided these tips on how to conserve water:
20 Ways to reduce the amount of water you use
- Repair all leaky faucets, fixtures, and pipes at your residence.
- Install flow restrictors on faucets.
- Do not leave water running continuously during dish washing, shaving, brushing of teeth and while washing hands.
- Run the dishwasher and clothes washer only for full loads, or utilize the lowest water setting for small loads.
- Use the garbage disposal sparingly or start a compost pile for vegetable scraps.
- Scrape dishes clean instead of rinsing them clean.
- Rinse vegetables and fruit in a sink or pan filled with water instead of running them under running water.
- Reuse water from rinsing vegetables for watering plants.
- Keep container of cold water in the refrigerator, as opposed to running the faucet to get cold water.
- Install a low-flow shower head to limit the amount of water dispensed per minute.
- Reduce shower time and/or install a cutoff valve.
- Reduce the amount of water used for bathing by 1 to 2 inches.
- Take a shower not a bath.
- Never use the toilet to dispose of cleaning tissues, cigarette butts or other trash.
- Water lawns only when needed, use a soil moisture meter to determine the need to water.
- Do not over water your yard; over watering results in water run off.
- Use sprinklers that produce large drops of water instead of those that produce a mist.
- Set automatic sprinklers to provide thorough, but infrequent, watering (1" every 5 days).
- Utilize rain shutoff devices to prevent watering during rain.
- Use drip irrigation systems for bedded plants, trees, shrubs, or turn the hose upside down so that water penetrates directly into the ground.
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