Water Line Break Leads To Watering Ban

Watering the lawn will soon cost a lot of green in Broken Arrow. The city of Broken Arrow has issued a mandatory outdoor water ban to all businesses and homeowners because of a water line break. News

Thursday, August 30th 2007, 7:52 pm

By: News On 6

Watering the lawn will soon cost a lot of green in Broken Arrow. The city of Broken Arrow has issued a mandatory outdoor water ban to all businesses and homeowners because of a water line break. News On 6 anchor Latoya Silmon reports on how ignoring the ban will cost you.

The City of Broken Arrow says it could take a couple of days to fix the break, so to conserve water they're asking everyone there to not use water outdoors. Those who do could end up paying hundreds of dollars.

â€œThis is something that came up earlier in the week. We noticed that our water gages at the plant weren't reading correctly,â€ Broken Arrow Director of Communications Keith Sterling said.

The culprit was miles away in Pryor where Broken Arrowâ€™s main water line broke. To fix the problem, the city needs to stop the flow of water, take it out, and then make the repairs.

â€œIt's a 24 to 48 hour process. During the repair we have to stop the water flow and totally rely on our reserves,â€ said Sterling.

That makes watering the lawn taboo. Those who get caught doing so could pay up to a $500 fine.

â€œIt's pretty steep,â€ said Broken Arrow resident Jason Strickland. â€œYou definitely don't want to get caught doing that. Actually, last night I got up, went to bed about 11 o'clock and thought I got to turn my sprinklers off.â€

The city is getting the word out in hopes others will do the same. In a special council meeting Thursday, city leaders discussed how to do that and why a fine was necessary.

â€œWe have to emphasize to people this is very serious,â€ Sterling said. â€œIf we want to get this repaired and get the flow of water to the city that we do now we're going to need good reserves in place.â€

The city sent out letters to homes and businesses about the break. It also put calls out and plans to do that again so people can avoid the fines.

Broken Arrow Police will go out Friday to search for and ticket violators, so consider yourself warned.

City officials add if Broken Arrow residents get their water from Rural Water District #4 in Wagoner County, they are not impacted by the ban.

Watch the video: Broken Arrow Water Woes

Related story:

8/29/2007 Mandatory Outdoor Watering Ban Issued