Tuesday, March 23, 1999
Lake levels not affected by showers
By ANTHONY WILSON
Staff Writer
Rain has finally fallen in Abilene, but the creeks aren’t
rising.
And neither is Fort Phantom Hill Lake.
Though quenching showers have done much to soak the soil, they’ve
made no measurable headway in refilling Abilene’s primary
water source. Thus, city officials continue to pray for rain while
bracing for the increasing possibility of water rationing —
perhaps as early as May.
 Dwayne Hargesheimer,
the city’s water utilities director, said the city may enact
some restrictions before the searing summer months in a move to
control water usage before it swells “plumb out of control.”
A public information campaign to encourage water conservation
has had little effect thus far, he said.
“Water use just keeps creeping up,” Hargesheimer
said. “If we can’t stop the waste of water we’ll
probably have to do something more than we’ve done in the
past.”
After enduring a February during which Abilene wasn’t
treated to a single droplet of rain, March has been marked by
a veritable flood of showers. Thursday’s daylong drizzle
raised official rainfall totals to 1.79 inches for the month.
Though the rains flooded several city streets, Hargesheimer
said runoff accounts for less than 2 percent of the 40,000 acre-feet
needed to fill Phantom, which has shrunk to about 16 feet below
the spillway. An acre-foot equals 325,651 gallons — or about
as much milk as a herd of 140 dairy cows can produce in a year.
Hargesheimer noted that the cracking, arid ground absorbed
most of the moisture, leaving little water to trickle into Phantom.
The manmade lake north of town depends primarily on Elm Creek
to deliver its water.
Elm Creek collects most its water south of town between Lake
Abilene and the city limits. The water must traverse some 20 miles
of dry creekbed to flow into the lake, meaning a heavy downpour
is needed to saturate the ground and yield a reasonable runoff.
“The rain didn’t help us,” Hargesheimer said
of the lake levels. “It held water use down, but we didn’t
catch any runoff. There just wasn’t enough rain. There’s
no disappointment. You just don’t expect it in that type
of rainfall.
“We’re just sitting back and waiting for a significant
rain. I’m talking 3, 4, 5 inches.”
The rains did convince homeowners to stop watering their yards
momentarily.
Prior to the showers, daily use for the city was averaging
about 21 million gallons. The rains curbed usage to about 16 million
gallons per day.
Hargesheimer expects that will be short-lived.
Although water officials have stressed lawns need only 1 inch
of water a week, many homeowners were back sprinkling their yards
last weekend — “continuing to waste water,” he
said.
The rains benefited Abilene’s secondary water source,
Hubbard Creek Lake, where levels rose nearly 1 foot between Thursday
and Friday. Hubbard is about 5 feet below its spillway.
The Stephens County reservoir is now serving as Abilene’s
sole water source as city officials try to save the slim surplus
Phantom has left.
By month’s end, Phantom will be mired in the driest 21-month
period in the lake’s 58-year history. And though rain is
in the forecast for Friday, long-range predictions call for a
dry spring.
“It’s been a pretty long spell,’’ Hargesheimer
shrugged.
Anthony Wilson can be reached at 676-6734 or wilsona@abinews.com.
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Abilene Reporter-News / Texnews / E.W. Scripps Publications
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