“Anytime we get to this time of year we get to talking about water conservation,” Bruce Butscher, director of public works, said recently to the Temple City Council.
High usage months, according to the city’s water conservation plan, are June through September.
City Manager David Blackburn said that, although the demand for water tends to go up in the summer months, there is no overall shortage of water in the city over the long term.
“This community has planned very well for many years to ensure that we have adequate water rights and water supply to meet the needs of the community, both currently and in the future,” he said.
“Our water rights have been secured for many, many years and historically and currently the amount of water that we have access to, and that is available to us, is in very good shape.”
He said the city’s water conservation program mandated by the state and presented to the city council recently has five levels of conservation that are triggered on demand versus the city water system’s ability to deliver.
Some of the conservation measures are mandatory and some are voluntary. In 2000 the state mandated a plan be created in cities.
“Our ability to deliver water is finite,” Blackburn said. “Our distribution system does have limitations, as does every distribution system … and the water conservation plan is intended to address those limitations.”
Butscher said the city’s average daily demand in the hot months is 18 million gallons per day. The highest amount recorded by the city was 29.9 million gallons pumped during one day in 1998.
According to the plan, the city manager has the authority to initiate any stage of the plan or to terminate any stage of the plan as needed.
Stage one is a conservation stage in which customers are simply asked to voluntarily limit their outdoor water usage, he said.
The “trigger points” with stage one happen when daily demand exceeds 21 million gallons per day for three days or 24 million gallons for a single day, according to the conservation plan.
It is also triggered when the elevated storage tanks do not refill to at least 80 percent capacity or the ground tanks do not refill to 90 percent overnight.
As demand increasingly taxes the city’s level to deliver water, each level ramps up conservation requirements in addition to restrictions from the previous stages.
Stage two conservation measures include prohibition of car washing except on certain days and between certain times of day. Washing is allowed only with a handheld bucket or a hose equipped with a cutoff switch.
Restaurants are prohibited from serving water except on request.
Stage three prohibits car washing, golf course watering (except with non-drinkable water) and more lawn watering restrictions.
Stage four allows watering with hand-held hoses, buckets or drip process only. Automatic and manual sprinklers are prohibited. All car washing must be at a commercial car wash facility and must be for public safety or welfare purposes only.
Stage five is an emergency water shortage situation that might be triggered by major water line breakage, pump or system failure or contamination, according to the plan.
In that stage, all irrigation and vehicle washing is prohibited and water rationing is begun with single family residences allotted 8,000 gallons a month.
“We’re just trying to plan very prudently and let the residents know that there is a plan in place, should that system be taxed for whatever reason,” Blackburn said of the plan.
“Water conservation isn’t just about preserving a valuable and limited resource, it’s also about saving money. Our water conservation plan is really intended to help residents do both,” he said.
