The Jackson County ban on washing cars and using pressure washers will likely end this week, say officials of the Jackson County Water and Sewerage Authority.
That won’t be a moment too soon for people answering the phones at the authority’s Jefferson offices.
“We’re getting bombarded with calls,” manager Eric Klerk told the authority last Thursday. “Most of the calls we get here ... people want to wash. They want to wash their cars and pressure wash their houses.”
officials are awaiting confirmation from the Environmental Protection Division that it has granted permission for those activities — and for an additional day of yard and landscape irrigation every week. Word is expected this week.
Jackson, Barrow, Clarke and Oconee county officials made the requests individually last week as well as collectively through the Upper Oconee Basin Water Authority.
The group petitioned the EPD for level 4B restrictions — which allows the watering of yards twice a week — plus the ability to use water for washing cars and using pressure washers. Neither of those activities has been permitted locally for more than a year.
Jackson County’s contact at the EPD said he was “100 percent sure” the request would be accepted, Klerk told the Jackson County Water and Sewerage Authority last Thursday night.
When it is approved, the Jackson County authority will announce the lessening of restrictions via newspaper ads and messages on its website (www.jcwsa.com) under “drought update,” along with a notation on its monthly bills.
The changes affect Jackson County residents who get their water from the county water and sewerage authority — much of unincorporated Jackson County plus the municipalities of Arcade, Braselton, Pendergrass and Talmo. (Commerce, Maysville and Nicholson are under no such restrictions.)
When the restrictions are lifted, water customers with addresses ending in an odd number will be able to irrigate lawns and landscapes Mondays and Wednesdays from midnight to 10 a.m., while those with even-numbered addresses will be allowed to irrigate Tuesdays and Thursdays. That watering is in addition to the 25 minutes of hand-watering allowed daily.
The irrigation of vegetable gardens is not restricted in any form.
The plan submitted by the four counties to the EPD also details how restrictions will be reinstated should the level of the Bear Creek Reservoir again fall sharply
