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Draining the system: Record water use prompts conservation plan
  
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By Nancy Flake
Conroe officials are asking residents and businesses to voluntarily conserve water as record demands and a lack of rain has put a strain on city wells.
City Administrator Jerry McGuire implemented Stage One of the city’s drought contingency plan Thursday afternoon, calling for voluntary conservation by residents and businesses and more stringent measures by the city.
Demand on the city’s 12 wells, which have a total capacity of approximately 13.7 million gallons a day, went over that total Sunday, Monday and Tuesday.
According to McGuire, Sunday’s usage hit 13.8 million gallons, went to 14 million gallons Monday and rose to a record 15 million gallons Tuesday.
Water usage is monitored in real time by a computerized, wireless system, McGuire said, and he’ll learn by mid-morning today whether conservation measures can be eased. Or else, the city will need to implement mandatory conservation measures.
“If we have another 14- to 16-million-gallon day today,” he said Thursday, “I’ll be issuing another press release for Stage Two (today). These are all-time records.”
Stage One measures, according to the drought contingency plan adopted in 1999, are triggered when the total daily water demand equals or exceeds 90 percent of the water system’s production capacity for three consecutive days and weather conditions are considered to be in a drought classification with extended hot and dry conditions in the forecast.
When Stage One is implemented, all city operations adhere to Stage Two drought response, and residents are asked to minimize or discontinue nonessential water use.
If McGuire calls for Stage Two measures, the only time residents and businesses can use water for landscaping, vehicle washing and filling swimming pools – including wading pools and hot tubs – is from 10 p.m. to 4 a.m. Irrigation at city parks was reduced to those hours Thursday, McGuire said.
Stage Three measures, which prohibit watering of yards and landscaped areas, vehicle washing and filling pools and hot tubs, would be initiated if average daily water consumption reaches 98 percent of production capacity for 48 hours and if average daily consumption doesn’t enable storage levels to be maintained for 48 hours.
Golf courses that use city water must limit irrigation to the same hours.
Neither Wedgewood Golf Club nor Conroe Country Club, located in west Conroe, uses city water for irrigation. Instead, they obtain their water from wells on their respective properties.
Wedgewood superintendent Gary Rogers said he waters the 18-hole course “three to four days” a week.
Most of the irrigation takes place at night to maximize the water’s impact on the course.
“Every now and then, a ‘hot spot’ will show up, and we’ll need to put water on those areas to keep from losing all the grass,” Rogers said.
Pete Hargett, the superintendent at Conroe Country Club, said the nine-hole course receives its water from a single well that feeds into a pond.
“Course conditions were pretty good until about three weeks ago,” Hargett said. “Our lake is probably 6-7 inches low. If it (the drought conditions) continues, we’ll have to start cutting back a little more. We’re already watering the greens and fairways every other day.
“We just need the rain, the good Lord willing.”
Conserving water is nothing new to Wedgewood’s Rogers, who spent 20 years in California before returning to his native Texas earlier this year.
“In California, you have to be water conscious,” he said.
Rogers said he is looking into ways to reduce the course’s future use of groundwater as mandated by the Lone Star Groundwater Conservation District.
“We’re looking into a new irrigation system that provides greater efficiency,” he said. “We have a lot of springs that naturally feed into our ponds on the golf course and we want to find a way to use our surface water.”
The city can manipulate its system to produce a bit more water, McGuire said, “but that is a short term fix.
“We are running many wells 24 hours a day,” he said. “We put one new well online, and a second new well is coming soon.”
The city’s latest well, which has a capacity of 1.8 million gallons, is located in the Conroe Industrial Park on FM 1484. It came online within the past 30 days, McGuire said.
Another well is scheduled to come online in a few weeks, but it may not be as helpful this summer as city officials might hope because of its location on FM 1488.
“The problem is that well can only push water to the center of Conroe,” McGuire said. “Most of the higher-demand needs are in the north and northwest parts of the city. We’re siting new wells and preparing for construction, and we’ll get them online as soon as we possibly can.”
According to the U.S. Drought Monitor at www.drought.gov, Southeast Texas is under moderate drought conditions, while drought conditions in Central and South Texas range from severe to “exceptional.”
Montgomery County is well under its normal rainfall for July, according to weather.com, recording 1.09 inches through Wednesday. The normal rainfall for July is 3.08 inches.
For 2008, the county is 7 inches below its normal yearly rainfall of approximately 27 inches.
According to weather.com, the county’s extended forecast for the next few days calls for a minimal chance of rain.
Even a little rain would help, according to McGuire.
“Last Friday we had a rainshower,” he said, “and it dropped demand from 11 million gallons to 8.9 million.”
The Joint Powers Agency, which manages the 11 municipal utility districts in The Woodlands and serves about 80,000 people, has not initiated water restrictions, but General Manager James Stinson said that may not last long.
“We’re at a critical point here,” he said. “We need some rainfall, and we need customers to water responsibly.”
Stinson said the agency created a drought contingency conservation plan a few months ago, and it was adopted by the districts. Under the plan, if demand approaches 85 percent of supply for three days straight, the agency will initiate a voluntary conservation system, which involves customers watering their lawns twice a week.
Woodlands residents with an address ending in an even-number would water their lawns Sunday and Thursday, and residents with odd-numbered addresses would water Wednesday and Saturday.
“Should we continue with no rainfall and residents don’t cut back, we would go to mandatory restrictions,” Stinson said.
Those restrictions would prohibit filling swimming pools, washing sidewalks and using ornamental fountains.
City Administrator Jerry McGuire implemented Stage One of the city’s drought contingency plan Thursday afternoon, calling for voluntary conservation by residents and businesses and more stringent measures by the city.
Demand on the city’s 12 wells, which have a total capacity of approximately 13.7 million gallons a day, went over that total Sunday, Monday and Tuesday.
According to McGuire, Sunday’s usage hit 13.8 million gallons, went to 14 million gallons Monday and rose to a record 15 million gallons Tuesday.
Water usage is monitored in real time by a computerized, wireless system, McGuire said, and he’ll learn by mid-morning today whether conservation measures can be eased. Or else, the city will need to implement mandatory conservation measures.
“If we have another 14- to 16-million-gallon day today,” he said Thursday, “I’ll be issuing another press release for Stage Two (today). These are all-time records.”
Stage One measures, according to the drought contingency plan adopted in 1999, are triggered when the total daily water demand equals or exceeds 90 percent of the water system’s production capacity for three consecutive days and weather conditions are considered to be in a drought classification with extended hot and dry conditions in the forecast.
When Stage One is implemented, all city operations adhere to Stage Two drought response, and residents are asked to minimize or discontinue nonessential water use.
If McGuire calls for Stage Two measures, the only time residents and businesses can use water for landscaping, vehicle washing and filling swimming pools – including wading pools and hot tubs – is from 10 p.m. to 4 a.m. Irrigation at city parks was reduced to those hours Thursday, McGuire said.
Stage Three measures, which prohibit watering of yards and landscaped areas, vehicle washing and filling pools and hot tubs, would be initiated if average daily water consumption reaches 98 percent of production capacity for 48 hours and if average daily consumption doesn’t enable storage levels to be maintained for 48 hours.
Golf courses that use city water must limit irrigation to the same hours.
Neither Wedgewood Golf Club nor Conroe Country Club, located in west Conroe, uses city water for irrigation. Instead, they obtain their water from wells on their respective properties.
Wedgewood superintendent Gary Rogers said he waters the 18-hole course “three to four days” a week.
Most of the irrigation takes place at night to maximize the water’s impact on the course.
“Every now and then, a ‘hot spot’ will show up, and we’ll need to put water on those areas to keep from losing all the grass,” Rogers said.
Pete Hargett, the superintendent at Conroe Country Club, said the nine-hole course receives its water from a single well that feeds into a pond.
“Course conditions were pretty good until about three weeks ago,” Hargett said. “Our lake is probably 6-7 inches low. If it (the drought conditions) continues, we’ll have to start cutting back a little more. We’re already watering the greens and fairways every other day.
“We just need the rain, the good Lord willing.”
Conserving water is nothing new to Wedgewood’s Rogers, who spent 20 years in California before returning to his native Texas earlier this year.
“In California, you have to be water conscious,” he said.
Rogers said he is looking into ways to reduce the course’s future use of groundwater as mandated by the Lone Star Groundwater Conservation District.
“We’re looking into a new irrigation system that provides greater efficiency,” he said. “We have a lot of springs that naturally feed into our ponds on the golf course and we want to find a way to use our surface water.”
The city can manipulate its system to produce a bit more water, McGuire said, “but that is a short term fix.
“We are running many wells 24 hours a day,” he said. “We put one new well online, and a second new well is coming soon.”
The city’s latest well, which has a capacity of 1.8 million gallons, is located in the Conroe Industrial Park on FM 1484. It came online within the past 30 days, McGuire said.
Another well is scheduled to come online in a few weeks, but it may not be as helpful this summer as city officials might hope because of its location on FM 1488.
“The problem is that well can only push water to the center of Conroe,” McGuire said. “Most of the higher-demand needs are in the north and northwest parts of the city. We’re siting new wells and preparing for construction, and we’ll get them online as soon as we possibly can.”
According to the U.S. Drought Monitor at www.drought.gov, Southeast Texas is under moderate drought conditions, while drought conditions in Central and South Texas range from severe to “exceptional.”
Montgomery County is well under its normal rainfall for July, according to weather.com, recording 1.09 inches through Wednesday. The normal rainfall for July is 3.08 inches.
For 2008, the county is 7 inches below its normal yearly rainfall of approximately 27 inches.
According to weather.com, the county’s extended forecast for the next few days calls for a minimal chance of rain.
Even a little rain would help, according to McGuire.
“Last Friday we had a rainshower,” he said, “and it dropped demand from 11 million gallons to 8.9 million.”
The Joint Powers Agency, which manages the 11 municipal utility districts in The Woodlands and serves about 80,000 people, has not initiated water restrictions, but General Manager James Stinson said that may not last long.
“We’re at a critical point here,” he said. “We need some rainfall, and we need customers to water responsibly.”
Stinson said the agency created a drought contingency conservation plan a few months ago, and it was adopted by the districts. Under the plan, if demand approaches 85 percent of supply for three days straight, the agency will initiate a voluntary conservation system, which involves customers watering their lawns twice a week.
Woodlands residents with an address ending in an even-number would water their lawns Sunday and Thursday, and residents with odd-numbered addresses would water Wednesday and Saturday.
“Should we continue with no rainfall and residents don’t cut back, we would go to mandatory restrictions,” Stinson said.
Those restrictions would prohibit filling swimming pools, washing sidewalks and using ornamental fountains.
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