City officials finding balance on water awareness

Roughly a week into its annual drought management plan, city staff is trying to find a balance between keeping the public informed of the need to conserve and unnecessarily starting a panic.

By an ordinance approved in July by the Clovis city commission, April 1 began the six-month period, which most Clovis residents know as the time when they're asked to observe a lawn-watering scheduled based on addresses.

The city water policy advisory board discussed the four-stage plan during its regular meeting Tuesday morning.

At the lowest stage — the minimum imposed from April 1-Oct. 1 — runoff water is prohibited and restaurants may only serve water upon request, plus residents are asked to voluntarily water lawns three days per week (Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday for odd-numbered addresses; Wednesday, Friday and Sunday for even-numbered addresses). At higher stages, voluntary efforts become mandatory restrictions and further caveats are imposed on city pools, cemeteries, construction sites and car washes, among other locations.

Violation stages include a written warning, then progressive penalties of $20, $50, $100 and $300.

What stage the city enters is tied to the city's daily water usage as a percentage of capacity. That refers to the amount of water EPCOR, the city's water provider, can pump daily — currently 11.2 million gallons, spokesman Brian Daly said.

City Manager Joe Thomas said EPCOR has not historically had problems providing water even during the higher-usage months, where citizens use 90 to 100 percent of the company's daily pumping capacity of 11.3 million gallons of water, so he's not sure how much to alarm the public by consistently jumping to the second stage — which he can activate when water usage hits 85 percent for three consecutive days.

Thomas said it's a virtual guarantee the city will reach Stage 2, especially if 2012 is anything like 2011. For example, the final 24 days of June 2011 each had usage of at least 90 percent capacity, including 100 percent usage on June 26 when the temperature topped out at 106 degrees.

"Once we get into June," Thomas said, "that will be kind of a constant thing. Stage 2 is primarily voluntary, but there are still some things that are restrictive."

Stage 3 is five consecutive days of 95 percent capacity and Stage 4 is five days of 98 percent capacity.

Thomas suggested the committee keep an eye on capacity as it applies to the drought management plan, and revisit the issue to see if the ordinance needs tweaking next meeting.

"We were trying to stay in front of the curve," Daly said of the changes to the plan last year, "but we don't want to be overly cautious."

The ordinance gives the city manager the authority to make immediate decisions in dire circumstances and clear the action the next time the city commission meets.

In other business at the meeting:

• City Engineer Justin Howalt said the city should be able to draw on $4.1 million in the second week of June for the effluent reuse project's first phase.

Nearly three-quarters of the money goes to the intake structure and improvements at the wastewater treatment plant, Howalt said. The rest of the money, and most of the money for future phases, would cover the pipeline that would move recycled water for various usage — including watering city and school lawns.

Howalt expected work to begin in late June or early July, and alternate bids would be submitted to push the pipeline as far north as possible. He at least estimates the city's current funding would take the pipeline to the city landfill.

• Chairman Randy Crowder said he wanted to work on a five-year strategic plan for the committee, since it has concluded the 40-year city water plan and construction is about to being on the effluent reuse project — its two biggest pushes over the last few years.

"I've kind of got to the point of (saying), 'Where do we go from here?'" Crowder said.

Crowder asked committee members to think about what the focus should be, and even considered hiring a local facilitator to help with the process. The main qualification, Crowder said, was that they wouldn't have "a predetermined decision of where we want to go."

• Committee member Gene Hendricks mentioned that Bailey and Parmer counties are part of a "50/50" water restriction, which specifies that 50 percent of the current groundwater available must still be there in 50 years.

To reach those ends, agricultural irrigation will be cut to 1.75 acre feet of water per year per acre, 1.5 in 2013 and 1.25 starting in 2016. Hendricks said it's a significant cut, especially since it's not unheard of for farmers to use twice that amount, and it might mean more farmers will move away from corn and transition to lower-water plants like cotton.