Wednesday, June 23, 1999
Rainfall not enough to replenish lakes
By BOBBY HORECKA
Staff Writer
Despite above average rains in recent days, lakes in and around
Abilene are hardly a fraction of their full capacities, said Dwayne
Hargesheimer, director of the city water utilities.
In fact, Lake Kirby, south of Abilene, has remained neutral
throughout the rainy days, and neutral is a bad spot for Kirby,
Hargesheimer said. It’s barely
7 percent of its full capacity.
“It just hasn’t rained enough to produce any kind
of significant runoff,” the city water director said. “We
would need a good 4- to 6-inch rain just to begin getting runoff
waters to the reservoirs.”
Filling the lakes to capacity would require much, much more,
he said.
Elm Creek, one of the city’s main runoff tributaries,
hasn’t had a good flow in it at all this year, meaning lakes
like Kirby don’t receive their replenishing waters.
Lake Abilene has been one of the larger beneficiaries of the
recent rains, with an overall gain of about 3.2 feet in the past
month, but even at those levels, the lake is only at 18 percent
of its capacity, Hargesheimer said.
Lake Fort Phantom Hill has received about 4,500 acre feet of
water since the rains began, bringing it to about 43 percent of
capacity.
Those numbers equate to about a 2-foot increase in the overall
lake levels at Phantom, according to National Weather Service
reports.
More than half of that increase is largely because of mining
the Clear Fork of the Brazos for water, Hargesheimer said. Almost
40,000 acre feet are still needed to bring the lake back to respectable
levels.
Phantom’s increases would last about 90 days before the
lake returned to its condition before the rains began, according
to the city’s usage figures, and that’s only if evaporation
levels stay as low as they have in recent days.
Hot, sunny days drive evaporation rates up significantly, said
NWS spokemen. With the typically hot, dry days of July and August
ahead, the recent rains may have little significance in the long
run, especially when the added water uses for lawns and recreation
are figured in.
How much rain it would take to officially fill the lakes was
anyone’s guess, said forecaster Amy McCollough, and the type
of rain would also play a significant factor.
A slow, steady rain over several days, for instance, would
be more beneficial than a harsh downpour of several inches in
a few hours time.
Recent rains have had some positive impact. In addition to
decreasing water usages around the city, the increased rainfall
helped lift burn bans in different parts of the Big Country.
The Texas Forestry Service currently lists 11 counties as potential
wildfire dangers, three in the Big Country.
After the rains, Nolan, Kent and Haskell counties all lifted
their burn restrictions, according to officials in each county.
Short of pumping more water from the river, Phantom’s
levels should remain about the same for a while. Runoff must first
fill Lake Abilene, Lake Kirby and Lake Lytle before it spills
into Phantom.
Chances of that happening are slim, McCollough said. A slight
chance of rain remains in the forecast for today, but after that,
it’s clear through the weekend.
“We’ve probably seen the end of our better rains,”
she said. “That’s not saying it won’t rain again,
but it will likely be isolated showers, not full-blown systems.”
The next best shot at some good rains will probably come in
late summer or early fall in the wake of tropical storms, he said.
Bobby Horecka can be reached at 676-6744 or horeckab@abinews.com.
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Abilene Reporter-News / Texnews / E.W. Scripps Publications
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