Bloomington to tap lake, pools for water amid ban

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. (AP) - A prolonged drought that has led to new restrictions on water use is forcing a southern Indiana community to get creative to protect its landscape.

The Bloomington parks department plans to tap water that would otherwise be drained from Griffy Lake and city pools to keep some areas looking lush and reduce pressure on the city's water treatment plant.

Mayor Mark Kruzan has ordered restrictions on water usage starting Monday to protect the treatment plant, which has been operating at peak levels. City officials are worried that a power failure or overheated equipment could hurt water pressure and hinder firefighting efforts, especially when Indiana University students return to campus and usage increases, The Herald Times reported (http://bit.ly/NdZISX ).

The restriction bans customers from washing cars, using fountains or — with some exceptions — watering lawns.

Parks Director Mick Renneisen said Griffy Lake is being drained for repairs to its dam, so some of the water will be used to fill the parks department's pumper trucks to water landscaping, flower beds and young trees. Water from two city pools also will be used once the facilities close and the chlorine levels drop.

This is the first time the city has used the pool water this way, but "it's not a bad practice," Renneisen said. The two pools hold about 600,000 gallons of water.

"It may be something that we do in the future just to reclaim and reuse some of that water," said Renneisen, who noted that the tanker trucks will be labeled as holding recycled water so residents don't think the department is ignoring the ban.

Using "recycled water" is the latest step the department has taken to cut its water usage. The department had already turned off all ornamental fountains and reduced irrigation at the city golf course by 30 percent to 40 percent.

Golf courses are exempt from the ban, but the department is giving up on the fairway grass and will focus its efforts on preserving the greens and tees, which are expensive to replace.

"We have to keep them alive or nobody will play," Renneisen said.

The department also has installed slow-release watering bags on about 150 trees, but Renneisen said he still expects to lose about 20 percent of the trees planted in the last five years, perhaps 400 in all.

The parks department will continue to water playing fields at two sports complexes out of concern for players' safety if the ground grows too hard, he said.

"We're doing our best to use less water than even the restriction asks us for," said Elizabeth Tompkins, the parks department's natural resources coordinator.