Fairhope water customers' usage is climbing again after the city's Emergency Water Conservation phase was changed from phase three to phase two Aug. 21.

In a video posted to the City of Fairhope's Facebook page Thursday, Aug. 24, Mayor Sherry Sullivan updated residents on the status of water usage.

"The past two days, when we let everybody irrigate, we are pulling down over 8 million gallons of water in our system. That is up from where we were. We were at 6 million the previous two days," Sullivan said. "We can see irrigation is pulling down at least 1.5 million gallons worth of water from our system. Please be mindful of that and only use the water that you need."

The Fairhope water system has a capacity of approximately 9 million gallons.

Fairhope water customers went from phase three, in which no irrigation is allowed, to phase two on Aug. 21. The water usage rise since shifting to phase two has been:

• Thursday, Aug. 17 – 6.5 million gallons
• Friday, Aug. 18 – 6.1 million gallons
• Saturday, Aug. 19 – 7.1 million gallons
• Sunday, Aug. 20 – 7.4 million gallons
• Monday, Aug. 21 – 8 million gallons
• Tuesday, Aug. 22 – 8 million gallons
• Wednesday, Aug. 23 – 8.4 million gallons

Fairhope City Council voted to amend its Emergency Water Conservation Plan ordinance during an Aug. 14 council meeting and it went into effect Aug. 23. The new ordinance allows city officials to move to phase two once the area has received 1.5 inches of rain in seven days and water usage is below 95% for seven out of 10 days.

Previously, the emergency water conservation plan was enacted for phase one when water usage reached 80% capacity for seven consecutive days; phase two when water usage reached 90% for seven consecutive days; and phase three when water capacity reached 100% for three consecutive days.

Another change made to the ordinance is the addition of a warning for the first offense, a $300 fine for the second offense and $500 fines for any additional offenses. In the previous iteration of the ordinance, the only possible reprimand was a $500 fine and possible court appearance.

Mandatory phase two regulations will remain in effect until further notice by city officials. The amended ordinance states this phase will remain in effect until demand averages at or below 90% of capacity for seven out of 10 days.

Irrigation is prohibited except on designated water-use days, which are as follows:

• Odd-numbered Street addresses can water Monday and Wednesday.
• Even-numbered Street addresses can water Tuesday and Thursday.
• No irrigation is allowed between the hours of 5-9 a.m. and 5-9 p.m.
• No watering is allowed Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

The city of Fairhope has several water projects underway that will increase water capacity by 2 million gallons. Completion of the projects is anticipated for spring of 2024.