Water restrictions -no filling pool!!!

[erivette]

Stage 3 water restrictions start here Monday. On stage 3 you are not allowed to refill a swimming pool. So how do you keep it from getting below the skimmer? Anyone have experience with this? Crafty solutions? Help!

 

[J20832]

Not sure that this would help too much for your current situation... but I have rain barrels at each of my gutters and so I can use that water to top off my pool in between rains.

 

[erivette]

We haven't gotten much rain this year. Severe drought. That's why the restrictions. We have only had 20+ inches of rain all year. Has to be something I can do to kerp from ruining pool. Ugh.

 

[Just-a-PB]

Best idea is to get evaporation down as much as possible.
Solar cover, big sheet of visqueen, big tarp. You also might be able to pipe in a loop from the skimmer suction deeper into the pool to keep filtration.
Dont use it if swimming, just a thought.

 

[anonapersona]

Surely they mean no "drain and refill". Keeping a pool filled is not the same thing as refilling a pool.

 

[erivette]

It says, "no refilling of swimming pools." I wonder? Of course I'm afraid to call and clarify. Don't need to put a giant red flag on my water meter. Lol. Guess I could refill as needed and pay the fine (no idea how much it is). Water restrictions are common here. I just never noticed the pool bit since I didn't have one. Fellow Texans who've been thru this before, what do y'all do?

 

[chiefwej]

You will cut the evaporation rate WAY DOWN by keeping a solar cover on. That way it will take very little water to keep it filled. I'm sure that the water restrictions refer to draining and refilling. You are just keeping it filled, not refilling.

 

[erivette]

I do have a solar cover on. I sure hope you're right! When it needs water I tell the kids to refill the pool. So that's what came to mind when I read it.

 

[HarryH3]

Capture water that is normally wasted and put it in the pool. Like when you let the shower run until the hot water gets to the shower head... Run that into a 5-gallon bucket and then empty it into the pool.

 

[kimkats]

Turn on the hose for just 5 or 10 mins. a day. If you do that every day you should be fine.

Kim

 

[Bluegrassman]

^^^ What Kim said. Or even get a hose timer and set it to run x number of minutes late each night after everyone goes to bed.

 

[crek31]

We are also in water restrictions this year - have been for the last month. In my case, they have different rules for topping off versus drain/refill versus original fill. Topping off is allowed between the hours of midnight and 6 am. Draining is not allowed unless for end of season -- presumably they don't want a person to drain the whole pool then refill the whole pool. It is silent on filling a new pool -- I think it is allowed between the hours of midnight and six am. Call the water department and ask - you shouldn't have to give an address or name just to get that answer. In my town, the police have written 300 or so tickets and it is a misdemeanor.

 

[zea3]

Last summer we were allowed to water lawns 1 hour every other day, 3 days a week. I used my lawn ration for the pool. I never water my lawn anyway!

 

[erivette]

We can only water the lawn one day every other week. Even with the solar cover I can't go 2 weeks without adding water with 100+ temps. Restrictions start tomorrow so I'm going to get it to the top of the skimmer tonight. And we are going to try the bucket in the shower. Me and my 4 boys each should be able to catch a decent amount each day, without soaps and shampoo of course! A friend told me the fine is $200. Sheesh.

 

[Plankton]

Refilling and topping off are two different things, if you can save that much water by just capturing what is wasted before you use the shower then you surely can top off your pool. How much water are you actually losing? if you are losing 5-10 gallons a day, which sounds like a lot, but I know could be feasible, that's not going to trigger an alarm that you are using water for unnecessary reasons. Your water usage will not climb, because you already are topping off your pool on a daily basis, so that is already factored into you bill. I do the shower thing just because I can't stand just wasting good water ( no I'm not a tree hugger by any means, but I am a money watcher!) when I can put it to good use. If you have an automatic filler, the water company is not going to see any increase in your bill at all, because you have already been doing this all along. Your bill and water usage will be constant, there will be no change from before. If they allow water usage for lawns, then I'm sure they mean no drain and refill. Also with lawns everybody can see when you are watering your lawn and report you, if you have an automatic filler or even a hose in the pool who is going to know and report you, plus they have to catch you in the act, because remember since you have been doing this all along there will be no change in your water usage, so they would have an extremely hard time using that against you. Plus who's to say that when you dump 5 five gallon buckets of water into your pool that some one reports you?? How are you going to explain that the water is excess shower water and not twenty-five gallons of water that you filled up in your house and dumped into your pool? No one knows where that water came from, all they saw is you and your sons dumping water into your pool against restrictions. That water could very well be coming from your kitchen sink right into the bucket right into the pool and you trying to explain that to the cops. Do you really think that explanation is going to suffice? Once again call and have them clarify, topping off against drain/refill, because if it's no filling of pools, and you want to get technical, then that's exactly what it means, no filling of pools with any water no matter where it came from,for any reason, which I find highly unlikely.

 

[Plankton]

Where are you in South Texas? I just went through a number of counties Stage 3 restrictions and they all specify no draining and refilling of swimming pools, some state for stage three you are allowed to top off pools on certain days between certain hours, but they do clarify what drain/refill is as compared to topping off.

 

[erivette]

I live on 10 acres. There's no one that can see what I'm doing to turn me in. I just prefer to follow the rules. If they don't believe the bucket in the shower, so be it. At least I will know I did the right thing. If you don't live where water is in such short supply I guess it's hard to understand. I live in the country and don't have city or county water. It's a small municipality without even a website. All I have to go on is the flyer that came in my bill on Saturday so I can't get more info until tomorrow. It was a crappy little flyer so I'm hoping it was just worded poorly. As to matching current usage, they expect our usage to decrease due to the restrictions. They have drastically cut back what we are allowed to do. It stinks, but it's necessary. I even considered turning off the hot tub and using it to refill the pool as needed, it's about 600 gals, but it's on bromine. I'll be switching it to chlorine first chance I get. Thanks to those with tips!

 

[HouTex]

We had this last year in Houston. I live in the Memorial Villages and we could top up our pools so long as you did it during the every other day late night watering schedule. But we could not fill a new pool. I wonder what pool builders do? Are all of their builds on hold during the draught? I suppose you could truck in water. I've never heard of doing that in SE Texas.

 

[DIYliner]

I've converted most of my roofs/downspouts to catch the rainwater...I can collect almost 1200 gallons (at best) for every 1" of rain that falls
I even dug a trench & ran a hose over to the pool to automatically add water whenever it rains
Included in the total is the new cabana roof, which can catch 235 gallons of water for every 1" of rain
At present I only have about 740g of storage tanks, with another 250g to connect
Eventually I want to add an outdoor shower that will use rainwater & be solar heated

Around here it is pretty common to have water trucked in to fill a new pool, it usually costs less $$
We are charged for the water we use, then an additional sewerage charge based on water usage to cover sewer plant costs

 

[Plankton]

Erivette,
I never said break the rules, I never even inferred that, I apologize if you took it that way.