The Brown County Water Improvement District (BCWID) took the first step Tuesday that will likely initiate some water restrictions to the majority of residents in Brown County due to the low level of Lake Brownwood.
BCWID board members unanimously approved the implementation of stage 2 of their drought contingency plan which will be the signal for local cities and communities to begin considering implementing restrictions to water customers.
“The drought contingency plan states that when the lake level reaches 1413 (mean sea level), that stage 2 of the drought contingency plan will go into effect,” said BCWID General Manager Dennis Spinks. “Right now we are 11.877 feet below spillway so we are .2 from reaching that level.”
Before any water restrictions are put into place, the lake will have to hit the 1413 msl mark, and the BCWID will have a meeting with their wholesale customers; Brownwood, Early, Brookesmith, and Bangs; to coordinate exactly what the restrictions will be and when they will take effect.
“We will have a meeting scheduled this week with all of our wholesale customers,” Spinks said. “All of our customers need to coordinate the timeframe that we do initiate stage 2, and the restrictions need to be equal across the board. If one is restricting outdoor watering, then all of them should be restricting it.”
Spinks said that the BCWID may suggest restricting watering from outdoor sprinkling; watering lawns, shrubs, and driveways; and washing of automobiles. The district may also suggest that businesses or non-residential customers stop or decrease certain water use activities.
After the meeting with the cities and communities, Spinks said they will release the details of the restrictions and when they will go into effect. That timing however will likely be sooner than later with the lake quickly losing water due to the current weather conditions and approaching the critical 1413 msl level.
“That will occur probably the latter part of this week or the first part of next week,” Spinks said.
Due to the current weather conditions, Spinks said that the lake is losing .10 of a foot of water about every two days. He also said that the long term forecast indicates that the current weather pattern will last for most of the summer.
Water consumption is also high right now with their two water treatment plants producing 8-9 million gallons of treated water per day, and some days up to 12 million gallons.
Spinks said that details of the possible restrictions will be released to the media as soon as they are available.
