The rest of Temple remains on voluntary water conservation, known as Stage 1 of the water conservation plan.
The Stage 5 restrictions affect about 2,000 Temple residents and all of Morgan’s Point Resort, which has a population of about 5,000.
City Manager David Blackburn said that excessive system demands, coupled with the early morning system failure, required implementing this measure.
“That malfunction, in essence, prevented the system from sending enough water to refill one of our water tanks in the western part of the city,” Blackburn said.
“As a result of that, we have not been able to get those tanks to recover at the end of the day, although we have been working very hard to make that happen.
“Consequently I am directing that we go to Stage 5 of our water conservation plan, effective immediately and until further notice.
“We have people onsite that will be monitoring the pump station all weekend,” Blackburn said.
Fliers were being distributed to each door in the affected areas and reverse 911 calls were placed to each residence
On Friday afternoon the Pepper Creek tank that provides water to the area was on its way to being refilled, but Blackburn stressed it will need some help to get to capacity again.
The tank got down to 2 feet of water, where it is usually at about 20 feet. This tank is the smallest in the system, holding 220,000 gallons of water.
“Unless we get some conservation efforts and lower demand we could see this tank go down very quickly,” he said.
A meeting is scheduled for Monday morning to revisit the problem and take appropriate actions.
This is the first time Stage 5 mandatory water conservation restrictions have been put in place in Temple.
Blackburn explained that the tanks are refilled during the down time of water usage, which is when the valve malfunctioned.
The affected area begins at Texas 317 and extends west to Lake Belton, south to the Leon River and north to Texas 36. Subdivisions affected are Windmill Farms, Lakewood Ranch, the Campus at Lakewood Ranch, Lakewood West, Eagle Oaks and Northcliffe, as well as Arrowhead Point WSC and Morgan’s Point Resort.
“It is very important that we get the support and cooperation from our customers,” Blackburn said. “It will not work if demand on the system continues to draw the water down.”
Not complying with water conservation is a Class C misdemeanor.
According to an e-mail sent to Morgan’s Point Resort residents Friday, “police and water department personnel will be out enforcing this order.”
Bruceville-Eddy
City officials in Bruceville-Eddy also issued a mandatory water conservation order earlier this week, citing “tremendous strain” on its wells.
Water customers in that municipality are asked to limit irrigation of landscaped areas with hose-end sprinklers or automatic irrigation systems to two days a week, only between the hours of midnight and 5 a.m.
Customers with a street address ending in an even number are asked to water on Mondays and Thursdays; customers with a street address ending in an odd number are asked to water on Tuesdays and Fridays.
Filling or refilling pools, washing vehicles and the operation of water fountains are other activities impacted by the order.
Cameron in good shape
As Texas faces the current drought and 100-plus degree temperatures, Cameron still has plenty of water and no plans are being made at this point to implement drought contingency plans, said City Manager Ricky Tow.
A drought contingency plan adopted in 2005 outlines mild conditions when the daily water demand reaches or exceeds 80 percent of the 4 million gallons per day production capacity of the system for five consecutive days; moderate conditions meaning the water demand exceeds 90 percent of production capacity; or severe conditions where water use reaches or exceeds 100 percent of production capacity, or system failures.
Raymon Johnson, Severn Trent Services project manager in Cameron, said water use has not reached gallons outlined in the contingency plan, water pumping and treatment facilities are in good condition, and the Little River still has plenty of water.
The city’s drought contingency plan allows the city to ask residents to voluntarily reduce water use, implement mandatory outdoor watering schedules, or in the event of severe conditions, prohibit outdoor watering.
During the first six months of 2009, Cameron’s 2,100 residential and commercial water customers used less than 2 million gallons of water per day. Last June, the city used 2.060 million gallons of water. In 2008, water use spiked at 2.610 million gallons a day in July.
Staff writer Jeanne Williams contributed to this report.
