Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
A 1 million gallon storage tank near Bob Spencer Park is part of the city's most recent phase of the effluent reuse system. The city is currently gearing up for the final phase, which will take the system to Colonial Park Golf Course.
CLOVIS - The summer of 2020 has been a hot one, with most days reaching the 90s and plenty more days in the 100s than the 70s.
But so far, it hasn't been too much of a strain on the city's water supply. While the city of Portales did have to enact temporary water restrictions, Clovis hasn't had to enact anything beyond its annual voluntary conservation period that runs through Oct. 1, and its water policy advisory committee will meet Tuesday for the first time in three months and only the second time in six months.
"We monitor our usage daily," said Mark Huerta of EPCOR Water, a private company that provides municipal water for Clovis. "We do not have any mandatory water restrictions unless we're at (85% of capacity) for three consecutive days. That hasn't happened in several years."
The current pumping capacity for EPCOR is 10.7 million gallons per day.
According to the city's water management ordinance, April 1-Oct. 1 is a voluntary conservation period where citizens are asked to only water lawns Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays and not between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m.
Huerta provided The News with the following updates over the last three months of municipal water usage:
• June: The city averaged 8.3 million gallons of water per day, compared to 5.7 million gallons per day in June 2019. He presumed the previous June had plenty of rain. "It is weather driven," Huerta said. "A wetter month will drive down usage. You don't have as much car wash actiivty going on, things of that nature."
• July: Average delivery was 7.7 million gallons per day. It's up from the July 2019 average of 7.0 million gallons, but Huerta said it was close enough to assume consistency.
• August: Average delivery was 7.6 million gallons, up from the previous August's 7.1 million daily gallons.
Huerta also noted the city's effluent reuse system has had an impact. The system, first devised by former City Commissioner Randy Crowder, takes wastewater and treats it to a level that is not potable but acceptable for watering fields and other municipal uses.
"We've seen our demand go down as more parks and schools are going online," Huerta said. "It's been huge for conservation."
City Manager Justin Howalt said the system is only delivering about 200,000 gallons a day right now, but at full build should deliver about 1.65 million gallons. The system is designed to deliver about 4 million gallons, should there be such demand.
The biggest user will be the city-owned Colonial Park Golf Course, which uses about 700,000 gallons of water per day during the summer months.
Connecting the golf course is the main goal of the second phase of the project. The pipeline will go up Thornton Street, connect to Barry Elementary and Gattis Middle School, then head east to the golf course.
Alhough the system was designed before the city's 2011 purchase of the course, owners of what was then called Colonial Park Country Club expressed interest in using the system.
Clovis Municipal Schools facilities that currently have access to the effluent system are Yucca Middle School, Marshall Middle School, James Bickley Elementary and Bell Park.
Other CMS faciilties still awaiting connection are Clovis High School, CHS Freshman Academy and Sandia Elementary. Howalt noted Parkview Elementary was originally slated as a part of the system, but that changed when a new Parkview campus was built farther east on 14th Street.
