LAYTON — With water supplies in area reservoirs hovering well below capacity, watch your water use.

Suppliers in the region have already been getting word out that secondary water won’t be flowing quite as freely as in years past. Weber Basin Water Conservancy District reps are now warning that, given the dry conditions, those who violate lawn-watering restrictions will face fines that could reach up to $1,000 for repeat offenders.

Much of the state remains in a severe or extreme drought, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor, and levels at area reservoirs are well below full.

“We’ve never been this aggressive before. This is a step up from what we’ve done in the past,” said Scott Paxman, general manager of the Layton-based water supplier, which serves more than 700,000 residents in Davis, Weber, Morgan, Summit and Box Elder counties.

Weber Basin officials posted a Facebook notice on Tuesday announcing the new restrictions, which had already been under consideration. Among its secondary-water service areas in Weber and Davis counties are most of South Ogden, about half of Washington Terrace, most of West Haven, about half of South Weber and east Layton.

Per the guidelines, secondary water, which is typically turned on around mid-April, won’t be turned on until mid-May. Customers who get unmetered water will only be able to water their lawns once a week for 20 minutes using standard pop-up sprinkler systems. “Restrictions and fines will be enforced,” reads the announcement.

Water provided to around half of Weber Basin’s secondary-water customers is metered and district officials will be monitoring weekly water allotments to those users to make sure they don’t exceed allowable water use. Typically, the only way to monitor users whose water consumption isn’t metered is by visual inspections.

District staff will handle enforcement, and while Paxman suspects most customers, perhaps 80% of them, will abide by the guidelines, some, by experience, won’t. First offenders will get a notice, those who violate the rules a second time face a $250 fine, three-time violators face a $500 fine, and four-time violators face a $1,000 fine and loss of secondary water.

Secondary water users in Roy, too, will be facing limits in water use, per guidelines of the Roy Conservancy District, which serves the city.

Irrigation water for lawn-watering in Roy is to start flowing on May 2 and customers will be able to water only once a week up to Memorial Day, May 30. From Memorial Day to Labor Day, Sept. 5, watering will be allowed twice a week and once-a-week watering resumes after that.

“We reserve the right to change that if conditions warrant,” said Rodney Banks, general manager of the Roy Conservancy District.

Roy Conservancy District rules also allow for fines for those who violate the guidelines: $250 for a second offense and termination of service for a third offense plus a fee of $1,000 to reconnect to secondary water. District officials issued fines last year, when the stricter rules were put into effect, and a staffer will be assigned the task of monitoring secondary water use around the city this year.

Pineview Water Systems customers will start getting secondary water between May 2 and mid-May. Pineview serves parts of Ogden, North Ogden, Pleasant View, Farr West and Plain City and its guidelines allow for watering two times a week, 20 minutes each time, for customers with sprinkling systems with standard pop-up heads.

Paxman noted low water levels — 39% of capacity — at the reservoirs that provide the Weber Basin district with water, which include Pineview, Causey and East Canyon. Typically, that figure is around 75%-80% this time of year.

Banks said snowpack in the mountainous area that feeds snowmelt to the Roy Conservancy District is at about 68% of normal.

Given such numbers, Paxman said he’s hearing support for moves to curtail secondary water use from other irrigators and cities. “They’ll all do something, which is going to help,” he said.

The upshot, he went on, may be browner yards, but they can recover. “In my mind, there’s very little impact on the public except a little bit of landscape that’ll suffer,” Paxman said.

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