Forsyth County's watering ban

17 years ago

I'm in Forsyth County, and we saw on the news last night that there is a complete watering ban for us now. My lawn is already crunchy...that I don't care too much about, but I am very worried about my nice tomato and cucumber plants.

I have a plan, but am not sure if I'm going to help or harm the plants. I'm going to start showering in the bathroom that has a tub/shower combo. I'm going to them collect the water after showers to use on my poor plants. My question is, will this water hurt them? I use dove soap, Pert shampoo, which is a shampoo/conditioner mix, and then a little extra straight conditioner to boot.

Will all this soap/conditioner harm my plants? Should I be careful to only water the soil around the plants, and avoid the leaves and stems?

Just don't want to kill them!!!!!

Please advise. My father collects his washing machine water and waters flowers and such with the water, but he doesnt' water plants that he's going to get food from.

Thank you!!!!!!

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Comments (35)

quirkyquercus
17 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
I dont know but if there's phospherous in the soap or whatever that might lead to over fertilization and polluting nearby water sheds.

I just watered my lawn yesterday so it *should* rain now. LOL
rosiew
17 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Whitepony,

First off, I feel the total watering ban is grossly unfair. Thank the Lord I'm on the other side of the river in Gwinnett County. Y'all should strongly react to this. Call or email all of the members of the Board of Commissioners or whoever exacted this ridiculously strict ban. This is not acceptable. Restrictions make sense but not a total ban.

Commercial operations won't be affected by the ban, so they'll be pouring the water to everything at HD, Lowes, etc., but who in the world would buy anything now?

I have used a Little Giant pump to use bath water with no adverse results. Just ran the hose through the window and attached it to the pump.
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wendyjopod
17 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
whitepony, I am here in Cumming too. If it doesn't rain tonight, I was also planning to save the morning shower/bath water for my plants. I have also been saving kitchen water today and I need to come up with some sort of system so I don't have to keep going in and out with the used water...my yard is almost totally crunchy, but I don't care about that as much as I care about saving my fruits and veggies...eveything is mulched but still my plants are wilting...why couldn't Forsyth just have limited watering days, or limited hours, instead of a complete ban?? sob...
sugarhill
17 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Check with your county, but I'm pretty sure that the state of Georgia exempts food from watering bans. You should still be able to water vegetable gardens.
sugarhill
17 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
I just checked with my county. Personal food gardens ARE exempt.
buford
17 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
THanks SH, I was wondering about that if Gwinnett bans as well. I watered everything yesterday, but am worried about some of my roses and other flowers if it doesn't rain soon. I have many newly planted roses that will need to be watered regularly this summer if they are to survive. I hope they keep it to every other day here.
sugarhill
17 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Hey buford. There is no total ban yet in Gwinnett. It's still the odd day/even day system.
quirkyquercus
17 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Since when? I didn't hear about that or get any letter.

Still no rain here today. Not fair!
WhitePony
Original Author
17 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Well, I'm happy to hear that my "food plants" are able to be watered the regular way. I think I'll still save my shower water so that I can water select plants and some of my poor newly planted trees. Thank you for your advice!
grogreen
17 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
HI there, for those of you in the Forsyth, the total water ban county, you need to call and check if food garden watering is exempt in Forsyth before you water because the way I heard it the ban prohibits ALL outdoor watering including lawn and garden, swimming pools, etc. ...and the fines are really high so it while that home grown stuff sure tastes good, it would sure come in at a premium price if you had to pay the watering fine for it! I also heard that they anticipate that it would be changed to an odd/even system in a few weeks time, that the total ban isn't supposed to last 4-ever, so that's a good thing. Meanwhile, hang in there!
Twinkle
17 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
I looked up the Gwinnett restrictions. We are still on odd/even. In addition:

Food gardens may be watered.

***Newly planted items may be watered. This applies to anything planted in the last 30 days.***

It would be worth finding out whether these exemptions apply state-wide.

Hmmm...how would they know what has been in the ground 30 days or less? I don't feel guilty about watering my plants. I use soaker hoses and don't water the grass or wash my car. I use a whole lot less water than my neighbor who let his irrigation system soak his lawn for four hours straight yesterday.

You could also look into using a rain barrel. If you do, put some mosquito dunks in please.
wendyjopod
17 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Ok, I finally got thru to the water department...here in Forsyth county, you can NOT water vegetable gardens either, you can only water plants that are 30 days old or less..but the worst of it is, you can't even use gray water...as their reasoning was, "it's still the counties' water, even if it is destined to go down the drain, and they just don't want EVERYONE saving their gray water...we don't make the rules ma'am...it may change in a few weeks..." What a crock!!
drewl
17 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Hello Whitepony,

Glad to hear that you have decided to use water more efficiently and still sustain your plants thirst for water. I've heard about shower and sink water being classified as grey-water, something safer to use on plants instead of, say, the toilet water. Besides, most people overwater, and even moreso during droughts! In my 2005 Master Gardener's course, the instructors stated that most people kill their plants during droughts due to overwatering, not underwatering! So, when our water-system is stressed the most, and people are told that they can only water every-other-day, then it seems like they decide to water every-other-day. It is more important to water once a week, and give all the plants a _really_ good soak, than to water lightly every-other-day. Encourage deep roots, and you'll be set. Water lightly, and the plant-roots stay near the surface, where the soil only dries out faster and stresses the plants more. Besides, more water is wasted with lighter waterings, as it only evaporates more quickly when it is near the surface. Last, I heard this morning on NPR that Forsyth county officials had instituted this watering ban because they were worried about water-pressure levels being too low to keep the water safe, and would be forced to give boiling-watering advisories if the levels dropped too low.

In fact, I am constantly disgusted with the way we as humans take so much for granted, and how our system is designed to be so wasteful. Why don't we, say, have a separate tank that stores grey-water for watering our yards? Less stress on the city sewers and less-taxing on our already stressed aquifiers. Best of all, people don't need to feel guilty for showering, and can still enjoy this modern-day luxury. As long as the public is educated about what to put down the sources to this grey-water tank, it should be perfectly safe to put in the yard and landscape. Besides, it has to be better than what a lot of people put on their lawns . . . my neighbors all use Tru-Green, and although the chemicals are approved by the EPA and at least the people applying them are probably more aware of federal regulations with their application, I still don't like the idea of how many chemicals we put down that enter our aquifiers, lakes, and rivers. It might pale in comparison to industrial waste contamination, but I'm annoyed when people buy drinking water because they think their tap-water is unsafe for consumption. They need to also think about how their actions affect these water-sources.

I just think we could do things better with our energy use, without making sacrifices (except for lobbying politicians to change laws regarding home energy usage, etc, and making conscious consumer decisions that will support a new eco-industry). For instance, if there was a mass-scale industry into installing central heating and air through geological cooling/heating (think basement, which is cooler in summer and warmer in winter), it might be more cost effective for consumers to buy. When I was in Switzerland during a heat-spell in Europe, I thought the people I was staying with had A/C until they told me that they have a system of pipes and specially conductive stone that circulate and radiate the 'coolness' from the Earth. It boggled my mind that something so simple and effective is not used here very much. If cities could extract biogas (methane) off of our sewers and landfills, maybe we could limit our destruction of the Rocky Mountain aquifers while extracting natural gas (neurotoxins and other compounds are injected with water at high-pressure to extract these natural gas reserves . . . Halliburton, not suprisingly, is one of the major 'innovators' and users of these technologies).

Anyway, sorry for the rant, but it was more intended to hopefully make people more aware of our inordinate waste as Americans. It was also intended to praise Whitepony for her intelligent use of resources.

Maybe I'm preaching to the wrong group of people, as I believe most Gardener's are hopefully conservationists and nature-lovers at heart.
Kathy Bochonko
17 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
What!!!! I can't use any water! I thought you just couldn't use your hose. I thought a simple watering can here or there would not be a problem. Guess we have to sneak under cover of darkness to save our plants or will they start fining everyone who has living plants, since all my pots will surely be dead in a matter of a day or two. Guess I am going to go move them all into the shade.
jmzms
17 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
hmmmm....I wonder if Forsyth county would give a "produce voucher" to be used at your local grocer to buy all the produce you would have grown. As for their "it's their water" comment, I believe it's Mother Earth's water and you're just trying to give it back to her. :-)
sugarhill
17 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
If it helps anyone who isn't under a watering ban, here's how I've watered flower beds in past summers. I only water if it hasn't rained in the past week and isn't going to rain in the next day or two. I use the Shower setting on the watering wand and water each plant to the count of 12 seconds (one Mississippi, two Mississippi...). It gets them through another week. So far its worked, but this summer is drier than the last few. And I don't have anything that gets hit with full sun either, so that makes a difference.
WhitePony
Original Author
17 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
What???? So Forsyth county wants me to just let my shower water slide down the drain rather than have me collect it and use it on my garden? That's SO ridiculous!!! What pisses me off the most, is that EVEN THOUGH we have such worries about water levels, there is STILL massive developing going on. Our water and road systems can't handle it, and the pretty pasture land is dissapearing, but hey...it's all about the all mighty dollar, right? Local government makes me sick! I can't wait to leave this stupid place!

Thanks for the heads up. I'd REALLY be furious if I got fined after going through the effort of hauling big old heavy buckets of shower water down my stairs!

What a crock!
buford
17 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
"As you wait for shower water to heat up, collect the cold water in a bucket for watering plants."

From the Forsyth County Water Dept website...

http://www.forsythco.com/DeptPage.asp?DeptID=28&PageID=189
flourish
17 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Can anyone tell me a website where I can look up water restriction information in Georgia? I'm in Bibb county. Thanks!
quirkyquercus
17 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
So you can't even use rainwater collection or pond/surface water either??? The mere act of watering plants is what is being banned?
Iris GW
17 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Here is the page for Macon/Bibb county water restrictions.

Here is a link that might be useful: Macon Water Authority
wendyjopod
17 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
I think that you could use pond or rainwater, I didn't ask but the Water Dept's main issue was what was Forsyth's water, and what wasn't...I have already re-routed my condensate from the houses' air system to water a few things, but this certainly can't keep it all going. This is only my second year gardening so last year's rains were a blessing and I didn't know it. I will have to note in my journal to plant things deeper, earlier, and mulch even more for next year's veggies.
What galls me is that I cannot keep the gray water, what a total waste just to make their point. I am very willing to haul buckets in and out of my house. And yes of course they keep building new subdivisions without taking into account the impact on road congestion, city services, and the schools. As it is, they are building 3 new sudivisions right down the road from me and planning to develop the golf course which is also just down the street.
I will do like Kathy and go out during the night...when necessary. I hope this doesn't last long.
suwannee75
17 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
I have to wonder if the person at the water office who said no gray water was mistaken or misinformed. I think it is worth calling and getting a second opinion.
jmzms
17 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
I agree with Suwannee75...double check with someone else at the office. I know they claim the water is theirs, but I'd have to question what are you paying a monthly water bill for? To rent it? Sure, that works for water being used in the shower, but are you "renting" the water you consume? Is there a fine for peeing outside of Forsyth because you consumed their water to begin with? Do you get a rebate when you pee at home after drinking water outside of Forsyth (or the bottle of Dasani you bought)? I know this is an exaggeration...but so is their TOTAL ban. The state offers more restrictive options (such as limiting watering TIMES, and decreasing # of days) prior to a total ban...why wouldn't they opt for escalating this in steps?
Iris GW
17 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Oh, I love the idea of being credited or fined depending on the source of your urine!!

I think someone in Forsyth water department should be in "hot water" for not recognizing an impending shortage and implementing a stricter ban sooner (or for enforcing the one they had). How could they let it go so far that they need to create a TOTAL ban? They suddenly realized there was a problem? Duh, it hasn't rained in like a month!
buford
17 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
He may have tried to discourge people from filling up tubs in the house and using them to water. Not real grey water. And I can't see how using true grey water would help or hurt the situation.

Forsyth is the only count that gets all it's water from Lake Lanier. The lake is very very low. That is the isssue.
quirkyquercus
17 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Gwinnett is Great.
Just one of the many things that makes Gwinnett great is this 24 hour pre-recorded message that tells you about the water restrictions.
Water Restriction Info Line: 678.376.7100

According to the the recording. They can see if you're cheating by looking at your water usage. How do they know without going out daily? Well geepers, I just don't know.
Kathy Bochonko
17 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
I went to the county website and read the posting and watched the video file of the news conference and I am playing ignorant to anything more than what is posted there. I also read Tuesday's article in the AJC and from this I have decided that I can not use my hose or my sprinkler, unless I have newly installed sod or landscape planted within 30 days. No where does it say I can not bring water outside via watering can or bucket.

Anyone hear anything about when this might end?
jmarks74
17 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Hi. I am new to this board. I also live in Georgia. (Loganville-Walton County side) We haven't been given a total watering ban...but I am assuming it is enivitable. Over development of the land is one big problem here. The government sees dollar signs and revenue. They don't see the big picture and the problems they will cause allowing over development. I am sure in Forsyth, too. Also Alabama and Florida feel "entitled" to the water flowing out of the "hooch." The local goverments there have been hounding Georgia for years to "share." It is unfair that the TAX PAYING resident is being punished for poor government planning.

I also thought about using grey water...I researched it. Local governments are extremely picky about it. They are right ...disease could be spread if not properly handled and used. I heard it wasn't recommended for veggies..only landscape plants. I looked up some info on the web site below.

http://interests.caes.uga.edu/drought/articles/gwlands.htm

http://www.oasisdesign.net/greywater/misinfo/index.htm

Allot of info here.

I collected rainwater last year...as much as could be collected. I had to use mosquito dunks to keep the mosquitoes out of it. I got those as the local home improvement store. Worked well.

An article in the AJC online allowed commments to be posted about the watering ban in Forsyth. There were some really angry individual comments there. I don't blame them for being pissed off at all. They are well in their right to be mad.

I spent alot of money and time in my garden. It is a precious place for me to be. It is simple but I cherish it. I'm preparing for the ban in Walton...a few suggestions here sound good. Especially, collecting cold bath water in buckets!

I wish all of you luck and pray for rain!

Just wondering...can ya hop over to another county ...to a friends house...fill up some garbage cans with water and haul them over to your house? It wouldn't be Forsyth County's water ...now would it.
razorback33
17 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
It would be laughable, if it weren't so serious. I'm referring to the notion that the county "owns" the water they are furnishing to you via a network of pipes, for a usage fee of course! Every drop of water you use has been on this planet for eons, it is just continuously recycled.None is being added or taken away(except for the small amount released from space travel beyond our atmosphere) They don't even "own" the pipes, nor the storage tanks, pumps, water and sewerage treatment plants, land or even the vehicles they casually drive up and down the streets, going where? Everything is owned by the citizens, the County administrators are only the "trustees".
Makes you wonder what is taught in our schools today?
When the planners and commissioners were approving(rubber-stamping) all of those new development plans, whom did they think? was prepared to furnish the water and treat the waste water?
Rb
efam
17 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Hey Jmarks74...I'm in Loganville too (Walton County side)! Welcome to the board!

As much as I pay for Loganville "City" taxes, I feel that I should be able to water whenever I please. In fact, I have a neighbor who has 6 foot weeds in their backyard and soil erosion into the street (city violation) and it took 6 calls to the city to get them to issue a citation (and it has looked like that for 3 years). I would be surprised if Walton County (or the city) issued a ban...they can't even enforce what they have now.
Iris GW
17 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
The online version of AJC says the ban is being lifted tomorrow (back to the usual odd/even restrictions).
jmarks74
17 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Hi Efam! Thanks...and I hear you! I have been in Loganville for a year and a half. The city taxes are outrageous...and they are actually thinking about raising the miliage rate in Walton County! I feel the same way you do...we pay a ton of money...we should be able to use OUR water when we want to. I have one of THOSE neighbors, too. Weeds for days. And you are right the city doesn't move until you push....and push really hard.
quirkyquercus
17 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
That's it!!!
I have the solution to be in compliance and still water when you need to!

Ok here's what you do. Go get some inexpensive little flowers and scatter them all throughout your yard. "ahem ahem... you know, "landscape" > Since you will be allowed to water your new landscaping which is scattered throughout the yard, the spray from the sprinkler will inevitably hit all the other plants in the garden.
jmzms
17 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Great news for Forsyth gardeners...your ban is lifting...
http://www.11alive.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=81005

Forsyth County's watering ban

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