Tuesday, September 19, 2000
City trims water usage
By Samuel Segrist
Reporter-News Staff Writer
Temperatures dropped last week and —
finally — so did the amount of water Abilenians consumed.
Though they aren’t certain, directors
of the Abilene Water Utilities are hoping it’s the start
of a trend. Or better yet, the start of a long, wet fall.
“But you never can predict what’s
going to happen,” said Linda Simpson, assistant water director.
The water department watched as record-setting
high temperatures in August and early September, combined with
a prolonged period of drought, sent water usage soaring daily
past the 30 million-gallon mark.
But last week, after a thunderstorm broke
a 73-day dry streak, the amount of water Abilenians used dropped.
From Sept. 10 through Sunday, the water usage stayed below 30
million gallons a day — a first for September.
Water officials keep track of the 30 million-gallon
mark because the amount is close to the number of gallons the
city can draw from its two pipelines to Hubbard Creek Reservoir.
If the total goes past that amount, the city must draw water from
Lake Fort Phantom Hill, which it is trying to save as an emergency
reserve.
Water department officials have anxiously
awaited the change of seasons, meaning a corresponding drop in
temperatures and water usage.
The total usage last week was 160.1 million
gallons. The week before that, 224.5 million poured through Abilene
pipes.
And this week also started out right, Simpson
said. The water department reported that 22.487 million gallons
were consumed Sunday. Weather forecasters predict cooler temperatures
with a chance of rain around Friday.
More rain would be welcome, Simpson said.
Last weeks’ thunderstorm was quickly absorbed by the dry
ground and did not add water to any of the city’s reservoirs.
Phantom’s water level is 16.8 feet
below its spillway. Lake Abilene measures 23.4 feet below its
dam. And Lake Kirby is so low the lake level can’t even be
measured, Simpson said.
The dryness and the heat has helped City
Hall in some ways. Although quick to point out they’d rather
see water use decline, the high-use days of the summer are bringing
in more money than city officials anticipated.
Last year, City Hall, expecting to see water
usage drop with restrictions and a rate increase, budgeted $19.6
million in water revenue — a $1.4 million decrease from the
year before, said David Wright, finance director.
City Hall now predicts the water department
will make $20 million this year — still less than last year,
but more than expected.
Wright said City Hall had hoped the rate
increase would help cut water usage, but still generate enough
money. Instead, water usage has dropped only 4.5 percent from
last year to this year, meaning people used more water than anticipated,
and more money is coming in through water bills.
The current relief from the high temperatures
comes at a time when the city is considering several options for
its water future. At last week’s Abilene City Council meeting,
the group reviewed several proposals to provide water in the future.
Besides a possible connection to the Possum
Kingdom Reservoir and a cloud seeding program, the council also
heard a presentation on aquifer storage.
David Bell, director of the West Central
Texas Municipal Water District, answered council questions about
a study of an aquifer in Jones County.
The aquifer could be used as a giant underground
storage tank, Bell said. The advantage of aquifer storage, Bell
said, is that underground water does not evaporate. Every year,
the reservoirs that supply water to Abilene lose billions of gallons
of water to the arid West Texas air — more than ends up in
water pipes.
Bell said preliminary estimates show the
aquifer could provide as much as 11 million gallons of water a
day, if the city filled the aquifer during wet times and drew
from it during droughts.
Some questions are still unanswered.
Texas has no law regarding underground water
rights, meaning any landowner can sink a well into the aquifer
and draw from it. Bell also wanted to assure farmers in the area
that the water district would not drain the aquifer if it could
connect to it.
“We understand what over pumping would
look like,” Bell said.
Contact city government writer
Samuel Segrist at 676-6744 or segrists@abinews.com.
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Abilene Reporter-News / Texnews / E.W. Scripps Publications
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