During this summer’s drought, the water conservation orders asked for by Citizen’s Water in Fishers were also supported by Indiana American Water – a utility that has approximately 1,500 customers in Fishers.
Joe Loughmiller, external affairs manager for the company, said Fishers residents who are also customers of IAW should follow town ordinances that curb water usage.
Citizen’s Water asked for mandatory water restrictions at the end of July, but IAW had policies that allowed for customers to water their lawns every other day but not to water on weekends.
Town Manager Scott Fadness said in an interview last week that the majority of watering complaints resulted from citizens calling in and reporting their neighbors, and officials believed the whole community should take part in the ordinance.
“For us to go out and check to see who’s got which water, we felt it would have been easier from a compliance standpoint,” he said.
Fadness said the order was talked about on a Town Council level.
“We really feel like water resources are shared by all of us, whether Fishers, Carmel, Noblesville, Indiana American Water, Citizens Water – whoever it might be – and if we were facing a drought and if things were to continue at the pace they were going, at some point we’re all sharing the same resources,” he said.
“We thought we were being good stewards of the resource.”
Loughmiller said IAW draws from both surface and ground sources, including aquifers located along the White River, but could not go into further detail.
Don Kirk, a Fishers resident and IAW customer, said he doesn’t believe parched lawns will recover from the drought and conservation order.
Before recent rains hit, Kirk spent about 20 minutes every other day watering flowers out by the sidewalk at the front entrance of his subdivision.
“I can see areas that the sod is just burned up,” he said. “It doesn’t really exist anymore.”
Fadness said the Town of Fishers staff is taking Citizen Water’s lead, and the recent rains are not enough to end the order.
For a complete breakdown of the order, visit fisher.in.us.