Sunday, May 14, 2000
Stage set for Hubbard water
battle
By Samuel Segrist
Reporter-News Staff Writer
The cities that take water from Hubbard
Creek Reservoir — Abilene included — are negotiating
to determine how much water each can pump from the shrinking lake
over the next five years.
City officials from the four communities
are working with the West Central Texas Municipal Water District,
which manages Hubbard, to reach an agreement by June 30.
The result will have direct consequences
on how much water the Key City can draw from the Stephens County
reservoir, which has supplied almost all of Abilene’s water
this year.
Even as the lake’s supply dwindles,
David Bell, the water district’s president, said the negotiations
should end well.
“I don’t think anyone’s totally
out of kilter,” Bell said.
Even so, figuring out how to supply water
to four cities, each with its own set of concerns, is not a simple
task. Complicating it is the near-record drought that has caused
Abilene to ratchet up the amount of water it traditionally takes
from Hubbard.
Through a recent agreement, which legally
ends June 30, the Abilene water department can pump 30 million
gallons a day from the reservoir through its two pipelines. The
amount is almost double the 15.5 million gallons Abilene is supposed
to average per day under its contract with the water district.
The city managers of the other towns connected
to Hubbard — Albany, Anson and Breckenridge — have not
said Abilene is taking too much. However, while the average Abilenian
may believe the city is doing much to conserve water, such as
limiting lawn sprinkling to once every two weeks, the city managers
are not as sure.
“We fully realize that Abilene cannot
live on 15.5 million gallons a day from Hubbard,” said Gary
Earnest, city manager of Breckenridge. “We also feel like
there’s a need for a little more of a concentrated effort
to educate the public. The citizens need to realize that the contracted
amount is 15.5 million.”
The contracts guiding the dispersal of Hubbard
water go back to the lake’s creation after the drought of
the 1950s. The West Central Texas Municipal Water District has
contracts with each of the four member cities that helped build
the lake. The contracts are the same, save for the amount of water
each city can take.
Abilene’s contract was last amended
after the drought of the early ‘80s, when the city built
a second pipeline to the reservoir to increase the capacity it
could pump from it.
The numbers guiding how much Abilene can
take is more complicated than a simple daily limit of 15.5 million
gallons.
After the lake was built and filled, engineers
determined that 23,000 acre-feet of water could be safely pumped
out per year. An acre-foot is the amount of water needed to cover
one square acre to a 12-inch depth.
Abilene, by far the largest member city,
gets 73 percent of the yield. Breckenridge gets 10 percent, Anson
can take up to 9 percent and Albany can pump 8 percent, Bell said.
That translates to Abilene being able to take an average of 15.5
million gallons a day.
But the city does not have to adhere strictly
to an average.
Essentially, each city has a bank account
with the water district. They start with a definite amount of
water, and they can make withdrawals depending on their needs
until they’ve taken what they’re entitled to each year.
Abilene has been able to draw more than
its share of water because of the amended agreement and because
it did not pump from Hubbard on days when Lake Fort Phantom Hill,
the city’s main water supply, could adequately meet the city’s
needs.
But the drought is putting pressure on the
water district to re-work the contracts.
One of the biggest possible changes involves
the amount of time included in the contracts. Bell said an engineering
study recommended that the timeframe used to set the standard
on how much water the cities can pump should be changed from one
year to five years.
That would allow Abilene to draw from Hubbard
exclusively in times such as these, when a drought-shrunken Phantom
is being protected as an emergency supply. The excess could be
made up after the drought when Abilene doesn’t need Hubbard’s
water.
In times of plentiful rainfall, Abilene
has gone months without pumping from Hubbard.
Engineers have also discovered another 4,000
acre-feet can be drawn safely from the reservoir, giving each
city a 17 percent increase.
Some of the other cities, which have not
overdrawn their water supply, are cautious about changing the
contracts. Bell said the difference is in points of view.
“The smaller cities take a smaller
share of the water, and therefore haven’t had to make restrictions,”
he said. “Abilene is in a state where it needs that water
now.”
Once the contracts are written, the documents
must be approved by the water district’s board, which consists
of 12 members — six from Abilene and two from each of the
other cities. After that, the four city councils must approve
the changes.
Several members of the Abilene City Council
are concerned about the city’s image with the other member
cities.
Comments by Abilene City Manager Roy McDaniel
last week that the city could go several more years without a
pipeline to the O.H. Ivie Reservoir raised a few eyebrows on the
council, which has directed city administrators to make the pipeline
a top priority.
Council members Rob Beckham and Kay Alexander
said the remarks surprised them.
“My concern gets into how we are perceived
in Abilene,” Beckham said. “I think the smaller cities
in the municipal water district need to understand that we are
working diligently towards resolving our water issues.”
McDaniel said he will act as directed. As
to the Hubbard contract, he said he preferred not to comment on
negotiations.
Bell said he is hopeful the new contracts
can be ready by the end of this month. The most important thing
for cities to concentrate on, he said, is not the maximum amount
a city can take at one time, but the average that can be taken
over a five-year period.
In other words, don’t worry about 30
million gallons a day, worry about the amount taken over five
years.
“The real discussion is, ‘What
are these averages?’” Bell said. “I’m comfortable
that there will be a good compromise answer.”
Contact city government writer Samuel
Segrist at 676-6744 or segrists@abinews.com.
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Copyright ©2000,
Abilene Reporter-News / Texnews / E.W. Scripps Publications
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