By Barry Porterfield
It’s been a break to be sure as rain and cooler temperatures have in recent days given many parts of the state some relief from the summer heat.
Despite that cool down and much needed moisture Pauls Valley officials are still asking residents to continue with a volunteer rationing system for outdoor watering put in place just last week.
The recent hot temperatures had driven up local water consumption to the point where officials decided to call for the odd-even system, which is based on residents’ addresses matching up with calendar dates.
“It’s been better lately, but we’re not rescinding the volunteer rationing,” PV City Manager James Frizell said referring to the weather.
It’s that weather and a system producing some rain that dramatically dropped the amount of water being consumed here over the course of a few days.
According to Frizell, the consumption on an average day in PV calls for the local water treatment plant to produce about 1.5 million gallons of water.
During the recent triple digit heat and dry conditions that daily amount rose to about 2.3 million gallons of water per day.
The end result is the high consumption periods each day were taking water from two local towers faster than it could be replaced during the overnight hours.
That meant water levels were continuing to drop in the towers.
Even though the situation began to reverse itself this week with consumption dropping back down to about 1.7 million daily gallons, Frizell said the volunteer rationing will for now remain in place.
One reason for that is the weather forecast is calling for more hot, dry summer days later on with a few other days mixed in that provide some rain chances.
“We don’t want to rescind the rationing and then bring it back just a couple of days later,” he said.
The way the rationing system works is for PV residents living at a place with an odd numbered address to voluntarily do their outdoor watering only on odd numbered days.
The same is true for even numbered addresses and even numbered calendar dates.
The preferred times for the watering are from 5 p.m. to 8 a.m. the next morning.
An emphasis is also being placed on local residents conserving water in other areas when possible.
