There were a handful of residential and commercial properties with lawn sprinklers operating on Wednesday.

Under the city’s water conservation  ordinance, if they were caught doing so they would be subject to a warning on the first offense and a citation on the second offense.

That’s because it is against the law to irrigate outdoors during and within 48 hours of any measurable rainfall.

The City of Manteca — in a bid to reduce water use as California enters its fourth year of drought — has stepped up its education and enforcement efforts.

There were 45 warnings issued in October for violation of the city rules. The next offense at the properties that garnered warnings will result in citation and a fine.

The city has now issued nearly 200 earnings since it started enforcing the rules with a dedicated staff member.

And those citations, once they are issued, start with a $50 fine with applicable fees on the second violation, $100  fine and applicable fees on the third violation; and $250 fines for each and every subsequent violation plus applicable fees.

Getting users to adhere to a twice-a-week watering schedules with no runoff onto impermeable surfaces such as sidewalks, driveways streets and gutter is considered key to city efforts to meet a 20 percent reduction in overall municipal water use.

Just over half of the city’s water consumption is outdoors with the bulk of that going to irrigate grass that in most cases is non-functional meaning it is not used for recreational purposes.

No one — unless they have water miserly drip or micro spray systems — is allowed to irrigate landscaping in Manteca on Mondays, Thursdays, or Fridays.

Everyone else except for those businesses, industrial and institutional properties banned from irrigating period are only able to water landscaping two days a week.

Even-numbered addresses are allowed to irrigate on Tuesday and Saturday. Odd-numbered addresses are allowed to irrigate on Wednesday and Sunday. No irrigation will be allowed on Monday, Thursday, and Friday.

 The 2.4 million acre foot New Melones Reservoir — the linchpin of water storage for those that depend on the Stanislaus River watershed such as SSJID farmers, Manteca, Lathrop, and Tracy — was at 24 percent of capacity or 583,720 acre feet as of Tuesday.

More telling, that is just 45 percent of the average storage for the date of Nov. 1.  

To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com