Restaurant and Bars Change Their Operations For Stage 3 Water Restrictions
By: Lindsey Wopschall
Updated: February 10, 2013
Although Texoma is in desperate need of rain, Saturday's gloomy skies did not deliver much rain in Wichita Falls.
Which means, stage 3 water restrictions are still very much in effect.
Residents are asked to do their part to conserve and so are businesses.
But when it comes to restaurants and bars how are stage 3 restrictions impacting them?
The city of Wichita Falls has implemented two policies changing the way restaurants and bars can use water, and they hope those new laws will be enough to keep your glasses full at home.
Restaurants take food requests from customers, but now they're taking orders from the city of Wichita Falls.
"They will no longer be able to spray their floors clean, and the second restriction is that when it comes to thawing food, they can no longer thaw their food under running water," said Susan Morris, the Wichita Falls environmental administrator.
These new laws are part of the city's stage 3 water restrictions.
But for folks at Parkway Grill, the new measures won't effect the dishes customers dine on.
"All of our food comes in fresh so we don't really have to run water on our food," said William Copland, the assistant Manager of the restaurant.
"And if you want water with your meal, you are going to have to request it, 'thank you' because by doing that they'll save a gallon of water in the clean up process.
And though holding off on the H20 at tables isn't part of the city restrictions it's something many restaurants choose to do.
"Since the first time we had the drought, we quit bringing water to the tables," said Copland.
But now those cups aren't the only change when it comes to cleaning, new tactics tackling the floors are taking over.
"We use no rinse floor cleaner so we don't have to rinse the floor. You just mix it in your mop bucket wipe the floor and your done," he said.
An easy way to save.
Restaurants and bars aren't the only places following these rules.
Schools cafeteria's are as well.
And when you add that all up, that's a lot of facilities saving gallons of water, so let's hope these new laws will help Wichita Falls conserve water.
