The watering ban runs through Labor Day. Here is exactly who it covers.

Photo: Kürşad Ç. / Unsplash. Illustrative, not a Northwest Arkansas yard.

The National Weather Service in Tulsa has Fayetteville at 91 today, 94 Saturday, then 97 to 99 every day from Sunday through Thursday. There is no rain in the forecast through Sept. 3.

Two things changed this week because of that. The Benton Washington Regional Public Water Authority extended its lawn irrigation moratorium, and burn bans now cover every Northwest Arkansas county except two.

Both have boundaries that are easy to get wrong. So we spent the week pinning down exactly who they apply to, using the water authority's own service area list and the state's own fire map.

The Benton Washington Regional Public Water Authority extended its moratorium on lawn irrigation through at least Sept. 7. The announcement went out Thursday. The moratorium began Aug. 14 and had been set to end Sept. 1.

General Manager Scott Borman cited "the continued hot dry conditions predicted in the forecasts and the continued increase in overall summer demands we are seeing." The authority says it will re-evaluate on Labor Day, or sooner if the forecast changes substantially.

What it actually restricts: lawn irrigation and sprinkler systems, and nothing else. Hand watering other vegetation is still allowed, and so is topping off a pool for evaporation loss.

What it asks of the trades: the authority has repeated its request that developers stop laying sod or hydro mulch, on the grounds that it is water intensive and unproductive in this weather.

This is where most of the coverage blurs together, so here is the specific answer.

The authority is a wholesaler. It does not bill homes directly. It sells treated water to other systems, and per its own service area page it serves 17 of them:

Fayetteville, Springdale, Rogers and Bentonville are not on that list. Those four buy treated water directly from Beaver Water District, which says on its own site that it supplies the four cities and they distribute to more than 400,000 people.

What to do: if your address is served by one of the 17 systems above, your sprinklers are off through at least Sept. 7. If you are in one of the four big cities, this particular order is not yours, and you should follow whatever your own utility is asking. Either way, call your water provider rather than going by a headline.

If you install or service irrigation, or lay sod: this is three more weeks of restricted work across a large part of Benton County and western Washington County. Worth a call before you commit to a September install date.

The state's Wildfire Danger and Burn Bans tool, checked at 12:00 PM on Aug. 27, listed 61 Arkansas counties under a burn ban. Benton, Washington, Carroll and Madison are all on it. The Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported Thursday that Boone and Newton were the only Northwest Arkansas counties without one.

One piece of context that keeps getting dropped: the state lists the wildfire risk level for our counties as Moderate, not High or Extreme. It defines Moderate as fire that "can start from accidental causes" and "may not become serious, but caution should be taken." The burn ban is real, and the risk rating is not the top of the scale. Both things are true.

Burn bans are issued by county judges, not by the state, so the exact terms and penalties vary by county. Check your county's own order before you burn anything.

If you clear land or have a brush pile: burning is out for now, and the piles are stacking up. Boston Mountain Solid Waste District runs centers in Prairie Grove and Springdale, and Benton County has drop-off centers in Centerton, Rogers and Siloam Springs. Our dump run guide has the addresses. Call ahead about brush and yard waste specifically, because that guide was built around household hazardous waste and the rules differ by material.

Everything above is about a dry stretch. This is the job that dry stretch is actually good for.

There is no rain in the forecast through Sept. 3. Whenever the pattern does break, everything you have not dealt with gets tested at once, and the first heavy rain after a long dry spell is the one that finds the gaps. Right now you can see those gaps, walk on dry ground, and fix most of them with a shovel and an hour.

The three things to look at, in order. Diagram: The NWA Trade Guide.

1. The gap at the foundation. Walk the perimeter and look at where the soil meets the slab or the footing. After weeks without rain, soil shrinks and pulls back, and you will often see a visible separation with cracks running alongside the house. That gap is a straight path for water down to the footing. Break up the dried soil and tamp it back against the foundation, adding soil if you need to, so the surface slopes away. Do not pack soil up over the siding or across the weep holes in brick.

2. Gutters, even though it has not rained. Drought stressed trees shed leaves and small limbs early, so gutters load up in a dry summer too. Look at the outside of the gutters for streaks and watermarks, and at the ground under the drip line for erosion. Both mean it has been overflowing.

3. Where the water lands. The Northern Virginia Soil and Water Conservation District's rule of thumb is a slope away from the foundation of roughly 5 percent, held for about 10 feet. Fill the low spots that have opened up near your downspouts. Add a splash block or an extension so the discharge lands out away from the wall instead of at it. On an average house a hard rain sends hundreds of gallons off the roof, and all of it arrives wherever the downspout is pointed.

4. The watering question, which is genuinely awkward this year. The usual dry weather advice is to keep the soil near the foundation from going completely bone dry. If you are on one of the 17 systems above, the moratorium covers lawn irrigation and sprinklers, and hand watering other vegetation is allowed. A soaker hose laid at the foundation is not clearly either one. Ask your utility before you run one rather than guessing.

Call somebody if: a crack is visibly widening, you have stair step cracking through brick or block, doors and windows have started sticking this summer, or water has already been under the slab. Regrading an entire lot is a machine job, not a shovel job.

Nothing on this list needs a ladder except the gutters. If you are not steady on one, that is a sensible thing to hire out.

General seasonal guidance, not a claim about any specific product, brand or local contractor's pricing.

The Jones Center is launching GoodWorks, which it describes as the state's first volunteer center, and its first Day of Service runs Sept. 12 from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. Volunteers pick a project from 14 participating organizations.

The Beaver Watershed Alliance's project is invasive plant and litter removal at Walker Park in Fayetteville, restoring Spout Spring Branch and the urban forest around the park. Tools, equipment, training, water and snacks are provided. Long sleeves, pants and sturdy shoes are recommended. Meet at the parking lot at W. 13th Street and S. Block Avenue.

Free, all ages, but children under 12 need an adult. RSVPs are required through the GoodWorks platform. Questions go to [email protected] or 479-750-8007.

The Alliance's 15th annual Friendraiser is at Bunch Park, 162 Church Ave. in Elkins, from 6:00 to 8:30 PM, along the White River. Live music, a local meal, conservation tabling, awards for local landowners, a silent auction and a raffle.

Tickets are $25 for adults, which includes a meal and two drink tickets. Youth and students 13 to 20 are $10. Children under 12 are free. A table for eight is $250. Volunteers who take a shift get in with dinner and drinks covered, arranged by email rather than through the ticket page.

One heads up if you look this up yourself: the Alliance's events calendar shows the cost field as "Free," but the event page lists the ticket prices above. Go by the event page.

Worth going if you own rural land in the watershed. The Alliance's whole pitch is practical stewardship help for landowners, and the tabling partners are the people who administer it.

Keep Arkansas Beautiful has opened registration for the 2026 Great Arkansas Cleanup, which runs Sept. 12 through Oct. 31. Communities and groups sign up to host a cleanup, and Keep Arkansas Beautiful supplies trash bags, gloves, safety vests and t shirts while supplies last.

The state page currently points to the registration form rather than a list of host sites. If your crew, church or neighborhood wants to run one, registering is how a site gets on the map.

We ran Fayetteville's development fee increase in Issue No. 4 and told you we could not confirm when it took effect, because the city's notice document would not load. It still will not.

The city's code library answers it anyway. Ordinance No. 6998, adopted May 19, 2026, is listed as effective June 20, 2026. That is the ordinance aligning development related user fees across water and sewer, fire prevention, business licenses, notification and public hearings, fees, and outdoor vendors.

Separately, Ordinance No. 6994, adopted May 5, took effect June 6, 2026. That is the one that changed monthly water rates, sewer rates, and water and wastewater impact fees.

What to do: if you are working from a fee sheet you saved before June, it is out of date. Both changes have been live all summer, which means any estimate written off the older numbers has been wrong for two months.

The Alliance's events calendar lists the September Arkansas Water Webinar for Sept. 17 from 12:00 to 1:00 PM and the October one for Oct. 15, both free. As of this morning the calendar shows dates and times without topics, so check back closer to the date. Useful background if you do septic, well, pond or land management work.

If you have neighbors on Bella Vista, Centerton, Pea Ridge, Prairie Grove, Gentry, Gravette or Farmington water, forward them the list. The moratorium has been running two weeks and plenty of people still think it is a Fayetteville story.

Know about a counter day, a free workshop, or a training deadline we should be watching? Reply to this email and tell us. We verify everything before we run it.

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