Brown County Water Improvement District Manager Dennis Spinks reported that weekend rains have raised the level of Lake Brownwood 1.5 feet and rising; however conservation is still necessary.
“So far the lake level has risen 1.5 feet and runoff may raise it to a total of 2 feet as the Jim Ned and Pecan Bayou are still spilling into the lake,” Spinks said. “1.5 feet equals a 4-5 month supply of water, if we conserve.”
Spinks stated that with the recent rains, another rain soon would result in even more runoff and significantly help the lake levels, which is at 1410.2 msl as of mid-day Monday.
“It was a wonderful rain and hopefully we’ll see another one in about three weeks, then we will be in even better shape,” said Spinks. “It was a good general rain on all of the watershed, which saw about 3-5 inches throughout. The rain filled or nearly filled stock tanks, conservation lakes, the Jim Ned and Pecan Bayou, so if we get more rain, it will runoff into the lake rather than having to fill those first.”
The rain also slowed down area daily usage according to Spinks.
“The rain dropped usage to about 4-5 million gallons, a 40% reduction, which should last about a week,” said Spinks.
Because of the additional water added to the lake from the rain, Spinks confirmed that restrictions will not be increased for the time being.
“I have talked with Brownwood and the other surrounding areas and will recommend to the Board (Brown County Water Improvement District Board) at tomorrow’s meeting that we stay at the current watering restrictions of three days a week,” said Spinks. “We’ll take it week by week; probably will not implement anything (further restrictions) for about a month, at the next month’s board meeting.”
Spinks stressed the need to continue to conserve and not waste the recent water supply the rains have blessed us with.
“We’ve got more water in the lake, but we still need to conserve,” said Spinks. “It’s a dent in the drought, but it may not be over. Come next summer we may still be 10-15 feet low and still be in a drought, so it may be another hard summer.”
According to Spinks, “We’re a lot better than we were a week ago.”
