Water levels OK for now
By Stephanie Hutson, Staff Writer
Monday, July 03, 2006

In this part of North Texas, water rationing has become a way of life during the summer months. Joining several cities that have implemented water use restrictions, Lewisville is asking its citizens to be conscious, and has reduced its consumption by about one million gallons per day.

Lewisville, like Coppell and several other North Texas cities, is supplied by Dallas Water Utilities, and Dallas is currently observing time-of-day watering restrictions. According to Coppell City Engineer Ken Griffin, the company has not asked the city to do the same.

“So far, Dallas hasn’t contacted us [to restrict water use],” Griffin said. “Dallas indicated that they are not anticipating any required water conservation for its cities, and if they do it wouldn’t be until late July or early August, if the lakes don’t replenish themselves.”

While future water restrictions are a possibility, they may not be the best solution to a drought. In fact, Griffin said, restrictions could result in more water usage.

“It is like telling a child they can’t do something n what is the first thing they want to do?” Griffin said. “When we tell people that they can only water on Tuesday and Thursday and Saturday and Sunday, then they water all day long.”

That excessive watering leads to far greater consumption than if no restrictions are imposed at all, Griffin said. The city is currently using about 15 million gallons per day, and less on cool days. When the city was under restriction in previous years, officials saw water consumption on Tuesdays and Thursdays reach 20 million gallons.

“It’s a two-edged sword n when we cut back the days we can water then people water in the morning and evening, and we will see our usage go up,” Griffin said.

According to Griffin, Coppell, like many North Texas cities, pay for water on a two-pronged system in which they are billed for a “demand charge” in addition to the actual water used, the volume charge.

Coppell pays for the right to use 17 million gallons of water a day, at an annual cost of more than $2.8 million, whether all 17 million gallons are used or not. The other part of the city’s water bill is the volume charge, about 33 cents per 1,000 gallons consumed.

The city will pay the demand fee regardless of how little water is used, but according to Assistant Finance Director Chad Beach, there is still incentive to conserve.

“In 1998 our rate-of-flow was 10 million gallons per day, and we went to Dallas several times the request an increase in our rate-of-flow to the current 17 million,” Beach said.

But once the rate-of-flow is increased, it is nearly impossible to decrease, and the city may be stuck paying a much higher demand charge than is necessary.

“While I don’t necessarily like the demand charge, I feel comfortable knowing we can take 17 million gallons a day if we want it and need it,” Griffin said.

Flower Mound is locked into a similar rate structure with Dallas Water Utilities and the Upper Trinity Regional Water District. The city, anticipating future growth in it’s western portion, purchases 41 million gallons per day, while using a maximum of 27 million gallons per day, and stores the excess.

While there seems to be plenty of water to spare, Flower Mound is still restricting residents from watering between the hours of 10 a.m. and 6 p.m.

“It’s something we do every year to help shave peak water usage,” Public Works Director Ken Parr said. “We’re watching it right now. If our water usage goes up we will implement Stage 2.”

The city of Southlake, which buys its water from the city of Fort Worth, must abide by the same restrictions residents of Fort Worth face by contract. Fort Worth purchases its water from the Tarrant Regional Water District. Currently, and all six of the lakes supplying TRWD are below their normal levels.

“On May 15 the Fort Worth water department gave notice to Southlake that their city council had adopted a water conservation ordinance,” said Robert Price, public works director for Southlake. “In accordance with the uniform wholesale water contracts, all customer cities must adopt and implement an ordinance with the same scope and intent as those conservation measures adopted by Fort Worth.”

Carrollton is currently under Stage 1 of the city’s Water Conservation and Drought Contingency Plan. The use of outdoor automatic irrigation systems is prohibited between certain hours and limited to specific days.

The Carrollton Fire Department has not been affected by the drought so far, Assistant Fire Chief Gary Nesbitt said. The city maintains a reserve supply of water for firefighting operations and he said they were “sitting OK today.”

Nesbitt said they were very lucky that grassfires have been minimal despite the dry conditions, and that Monday’s precipitation was welcome.

“You hate to get excited about four or five drops, but every little bit helps,” he said.

Staff writers Daniel Piotrowski, Linda Taylor and Stefanie Ackerman contributed to this article.