Officials from the Brown County Water Improvement District #1 (BCWID) met with area water providers Friday including officials from the cities of Brownwood, Early and Bangs to discuss water restrictions and conservation as Lake Brownwood’s level approaches the trigger for Stage 4 restrictions.
If and when the BCWID implements Stage 4 restrictions, they will require their wholesale customers to reduce water consumption by 50% of normal levels. Those wholesalers will then implement more strict water restrictions and tougher enforcement to reach that level. Although some officials said previously that those new Stage 4 restrictions could include the elimination of outdoor watering, it is likely that a series of new restrictions will be implemented to reduce residential water consumption.
Brownwood City Manager Bobby Rountree said after the meeting that he wants to see more conservation measures and tougher enforcement before eliminating all outdoor watering.
“We may do a variety of things,” Rountree said. “We may cut the hours back that you are allowed to water, that would help some, and again enforcement. We will monitor those and see how they work.”
Rountree said that the majority of residents obey water restrictions, but those found violating those restrictions could find themselves facing citations and fines.
“We are going to have to work hard on our conservation measures; that means more enforcement on our part,” Rountree said. “Most people are following them; about 25% are not and we are getting a lot more calls about that from neighbors. When the Stage 4 possibility came up, our phones started ringing off the hook from neighbors saying ‘I don’t want to stop watering because a neighbor is violating your Stage 3 restrictions.’”
He said that two warnings are issued prior to the issuance of a citation. The citation for the first offense is $265. The second violation will result in the water being cut off, a re-connect fee of $35 and a citation up to $2000.
“Quite frankly we have not enforced it very well this last year because honestly I didn’t want to write any citations,” Rountree said. “From this point on, there may be citations written if there are violations.”
Another proposal for better conservation of water is a tiered pricing model where a higher water rate would be charged to those using more water and would hit hard anyone using water over the normal household levels such as watering a lawn regularly.
“I think that is a better alternative to look at tiered pricing instead of looking to eliminate outdoor watering and see what impact tiered pricing has before we eliminate all outdoor watering,” Brownwood Mayor Stephen Haynes said. “If we have better enforcement and that doesn’t work, then maybe we cut back hours, and if that doesn’t work, we go to tiered pricing, but it’s something we will phase in different measures if necessary to achieve the 50% reduction rate.”
Rountree said that the tiered pricing model will be a part of 2013-2014 budget process.
“Eliminating all outdoor watering could have a major economic impact on the community; it could hurt businesses, it could hurt individuals, people could lose the value of their homes and their yards,” Haynes said. “
He said that they would have to look at all alternatives before just eliminating all outdoor watering and the overall impact that would have on the community.
“You have to look at all of the alternatives,” Haynes said. “We could implement the wastewater reuse plant and cut use by a third, so we could save with the wastewater reuse substantially more than we could by eliminating outdoor watering. We have to look at the alternatives, you have to look at the costs, and you have to look at all of those factors.”
BCWID Board of Director Dennis Graham said that he expects Stage 4 water restrictions to be implemented in the next month considering the rate of decline at Lake Brownwood. The trigger for Stage 4 is 14 feet below spillway level.
“In the next 4 weeks we will probably be 14 feet low which is the trigger for Stage 4,” Graham said. “As board members, it is our fiduciary responsibility to manage the water for 40,000 people and so we would be irresponsible if we did not initiate Stage 4.”
Graham said that the water district will look to each city and water provider to monitor and enforce their own water restrictions to ease the decline rate of Lake Brownwood.
“What we are leaning towards now, each entity including the City of Brownwood would have to enforce their own restrictions to attain the 50% reduction we are looking for,” Graham said. “Now I do support tiered pricing in a crisis such as we are in now. I think it would be a short term fix until we get through this.”
Graham also pointed out that the district is currently implementing a volumetric study of Lake Brownwood to help determine how much water is actually in the lake. He said that it is possible the amount of water currently in the lake could be lower than their current information indicates.
“Something that is very important here we need to stress, we could already be at 14 feet (low) or we could be better,” Graham said. “We have a volumetric study going on right now which will determine and tell us how much water is really in the lake and we also have an evaporation study which will tell us how much water is evaporating.”
Graham said the lake loses about double the volume of water per day through evaporation than is consumed by customers. He also said that the Friday meeting was a great way for all of the water providers in the county to communicate with each other in an open forum.
“The meeting this morning was positive because all of the entities came in,” Graham said. “I think the process we had and the open dialogue is beneficial to everybody.”
BCWID will begin drilling on a test water well next week to tap into area aquifers to search for an alternative source of water. Graham said that the test will help determine the volume and quality of the water in the aquifers with hopes to drill production wells in the future if the results are positive.
Brownwood and Early citizens are reminded of the Stage 3 restrictions:
Monday – odd addresses allowed to water from midnight to 9:00 a.m. and 7:00 p.m. to midnight.
Tuesday – even addresses allowed to water from midnight to 9:00 a.m. and 7:00 p.m. to midnight.
