The Stages of Drought

EID’s Board adopted the District’s Drought Preparedness Plan in early 2008. Below is a summary of the drought stages in the plan.

Stage 0—Represents normal conditions, like we generally have experienced for the past several years in our service area. In this stage, the District encourages water conservation practices, but does not set a target for customers to reduce their water use. During Stage 0, as with all drought stages, EID’s water waste regulation is in effect.

Stage 1—The District will ask customers to reduce water use—voluntarily—to help achieve a District-wide 15-percent drop in consumption from the average of the past three years. As an example of a conservation measure in this stage, EID would ask customers to irrigate their landscapes only during the evening, night time, and early morning hours.

In Stage 2 (a), the goal is to reduce water use by 30 percent from the past three-year average throughout the District. EID will ask customers to take additional voluntary conservation measures such as limiting irrigation not only to non-daylight hours but also to three nights a week. If the reduction target is not met, the voluntary measures would become mandatory—with penalties for non-compliance—under Stage 2 (b).

The goal of Stage 3 is a 50-percent reduction in water use from the three-year average. Stage 3 includes mandatory measures in addition to those in Stage 2, again with penalties for non-compliance.