Some businesses exempt from water ban

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) - The number of communities telling residents when they can and more importantly can’t use water is growing.

Three more towns have added their names to the list of watering restrictions. Brownsburg now has a mandatory ban, and Southport and Lapel also put restrictions on water usage Thursday.

And dven though there will be ban in Marion County starting Friday, it won't apply to everyone. Car washes are exempt from the ban, as are landscapers and golf courses. The reason? Without water, those businesses would fail.

In order to keep golfers satisfied, said Ryan Baldwin, golf superintendent at Highland Golf and Country Club, the business needs to keep the course in top shape. That takes water.

“If the grass goes into a state of wilt and then death, due to lack of water in this situation, the playing surface will erode. The grass would disappear, just like it would anywhere else, and you have dirt and you won't have any customers, it's as simple as that,” he said.

The course uses a lot of water, more so now because of the extreme drought. Baldwin said the club used just as much water in June as they would in a typical August. Baldwin said the club started to conserve water before the ban was in place.

“We will begin to wean off of areas of the golf course that don't require water, so, for example, even before the voluntary bans came out we were already in a position of reducing our daily usage by 20 percent,” he said.

In order for Baldwin to make those cuts, he uses technology. A mobile soil moisture monitor helps keep track of the greens, so Baldwin knows exactly how much water is needed. While he tries to be precise in the course usage, he said if they had to follow the ban it would be a blow to the economy.

“Obviously as a small business, we employ approximately 100 people throughout our clubhouse, golf course and service industry here, and without that we lose those positions and the company itself erodes,” Baldwin said.

Car washes are another category of business that is exempt from the water usage restrictions.

But that doesn't mean they're not doing their part to conserve.

At Mike's Carwash, Sally Grant explained how their water reclamation and recycling system worked.

"With our reverse osmosis system, every location is able to conserve five gallons of water, clean it and reuse it on vehicles," she said.

At some locations, the reclamation rate is even higher - up to 47 gallons per wash.

The company has stopped irrigating its landscaping, however, to conserve water.

Right now parts of Marion County are in a third-tier water ban, which exempts certain businesses. There is another level, a fourth tier. According to Citizens Water there are several factors, one being the dry weather and high water usage, but for instance the Morse Reservoir is down 2 billion gallons, and Citizens Water said it would have to drop another 3 billion gallons for a fourth-tier to be considered.