We’ve made some progress filling our 100,000 gallon tank, but it is slow going this time of year. The tank was as low as 3 feet when the leak was finally repaired. We’ve now climbed to 6 feet 3 inches. Each foot represents about 6,500 gallons of water so we’ve added about 21,000 gallons to the reserve in two days.
Please keep up your efforts to conserve water. We should be able to get back to our full reserve in about a week at this rate. We will remain at Stage II water restrictions until our reserve is full.
This illustrates how important our two well projects are in helping us avoid shortages during the hottest part of the year. When well 5 comes online we will increase the rate we can pump water into the large storage tank by 50%. We are also actively working on implementing more sophisticated monitoring systems that will detect leaks like this more quickly. If we could have caught this leak more quickly, we may have been able to reduce the loss by at least an hour, likely around 20,000 gallons in this case.
Thank you all for your patience and diligence.
Gregg Thompson
WSWSC
Here is a reminder of Stage II restrictions:
- Stage II – Voluntary Water Use Restrictions:
- Restricted Hours: Outside watering is allowed daily between 8:00 p.m. and 10:00 a.m.
- Restricted Days/Hours: Water customers are requested to voluntarily limit the irrigation of landscaped areas with hose-end sprinklers or automatic irrigation systems. Customers are requested to limit outdoor water use to Mondays for water customers with a street address ending with the numbers 1, 2, or 3, Wednesdays for water customers with a street address ending with the numbers 4, 5, or 6, and Fridays for water customers with a street address ending with the numbers 7, 8, 9, or 0. Irrigation of landscaped areas is further limited to the hours of 12:00 midnight until 10:00 a.m. and between 8:00 p.m. and 12:00 midnight on designated watering days. However, irrigation of landscaped areas is permitted at any time if it is by means of a hand-held hose, a faucet-filled bucket or watering can of five (5) gallons or less, or drip irrigation system; or
- Other use that wastes water such as dust control, spraying sidewalks or washing vehicles.