BRYAN, Texas — In College Station, two major utilities have asked people to conserve their water resources due to an increase in demand.
On July 14, the Wellborn Special Utility District issued a boil water notice to its customers informing them to refrain from consuming the water.
Following tests sent to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, the company lifted the notice on July 15.
According to WSUD, customers with them listed as their provider are under Mandatory Stage 5 Water Conservation until further notice.
As a result, those with this provider are not allowed to water their yards in any way.
Wellborn SUD is implementing Stage 5 Water Conservation as of July 14. Water conservation stage 5 prohibits all outside watering.
A variety of watering methods are available for outdoor irrigation, including automatic sprinkler systems, handheld watering, hose end watering, and soaker hoses.
The District will continue to implement these restrictions until Monday, when the system water demand will be reevaluated. “These changes are necessary to maintain safe storage levels for fire protection, drinking water, and sanitation,” according to WSUD documents obtained by KAGS News.
The College Station Public Utilities company has also advised its customers to limit the use of their sprinklers from 10 a.m. until 6 p.m. Watering should be limited to twice per week.
Jennifer Nations, CSPU's Water Resource Coordinator, said this practice is best for people's yards and finances. This is because it can also play a role in the cost of a person's water bill. She also said she wanted people to be reminded of their shared resources through this measure.
“I just want people to be a good human, be a good steward of resources, be a good neighbor, and we can get through this together,” said Nations.
Nations reports that their agency uses upwards of 19 million gallons of water every day in July. However, Nations claimed that this month, upwards of 24 million gallons of water have been used on a daily basis.
“Since June 10, we have not had one single day below 20 million gallons and since July 4, with the exception of July 5, we’ve been over 24 million gallons every single day,” said Nations.
Nations notes that Texas last experienced a major drought in 2011, but that the recent warm temperatures and large population growth in the College Station area have both contributed to an increase in water use.
“This is moving, like, more than we would expect with just the addition of population. This is driven by weather conditions and needing to water landscapes,” said Nations.
Nations does not know how long it will take to conserve this amount of water. However, it is recommended everyone performs these tasks in order to conserve water in the area and ensure its availability to everyone.
It is strongly recommended that people water their yards only twice a week, and not between the hours of 10 am and 6 pm
This recommendation is based on the Water Resource Coordinator's view that this is the most efficient method, regardless of the weather conditions throughout the summer.