|
|
 |
||||||
 |
Water Report Local water use declines per capita Amarillo has enough water to last between 170 and 230 years, depending upon population and demand growth, but in a semiarid region every drop of water counts. In a state-of-the-water presentation this week, Amarillo City Manager Alan Taylor said Amarillo has accomplished more with its voluntary conservation program than other cities around the state with mandatory rationing and restrictions. Assistant City Manager Jarrett Atkinson said that, even though the population of Amarillo has continued to grow, total water usage has gone down. "We're averaging about a 4 percent per year decline per capita water use in Amarillo," he said, "even factoring in the dry year of 2006." The goal of this year's Every Drop Counts water conservation program is to increase the annual decline to 5 percent. Daily water use in Amarillo last year averaged a little more than 41 million gallons, or not quite 15 billion gallons of water for the year. "That was almost a 14 percent reduction from where we stood in 2006," he said. Water usage spiked in 2006, a dry year in the Texas Panhandle, and the city instituted its Every Drop Counts program. That program was carried over into 2007 and now into 2008. "We do think we increased public awareness of water conservation," he said. More than half the water used in Amarillo goes for residential use. Amarillo reports a little more than 67,000 water hookups in the city. "To get that water to the folks," Atkinson said, "we run over 1,000 miles of underground pipe." Despite concerns nationally over water quality, Atkinson said that the water Amarillo draws on is extremely high quality. "It's chlorinated either at the well head or at a pump station," he said. "That's it." The vast majority of the water flowing through Amarillo today is well water. "It's very good water," he said. "It's very clean water." The water in the city's wastewater system is settled, filtered, ionized and pumped back into the system. Atkinson said the city has a complete environmental laboratory that can run almost any test possible on water quality. "We do that on a daily basis," Atkinson said. While the city's water system has a capacity of about 122 million gallons a day, the peak amount of water moved last year was about 74 million gallons, or about 60 percent of capacity. The water going into the system comes from the Canadian River Municipal Water Authority, Amarillo's Randall County well field and the city's Carson County well field. The city also has water rights in Hartley, Roberts and Potter counties. The Potter County well field is being developed. The others are being held for the future. In addition, Atkinson said, the Randall County well field, the oldest in the system, is being expanded by tapping the Dockum Aquifer, which lies beneath the Ogallala Aquifer that provides most of the area's water. The Randall County well field has been producing for about 80 years now. "That was a really good investment that the city made then," Atkinson said. About 24 percent of Amarillo's water comes from Lake Meredith through the Canadian River Municipal Water Authority. "Even with the conditions of the lake," he said, "it is a very important part, not only of our system, but of the other 10 member cities." CRMWA also provides about 38 percent of Amarillo's water via the Roberts County well field. "Combined, the Canadian River Municipal Water Authority will bring us about 62 percent of the water we need," Atkinson said. Amarillo's well fields supply the rest. "Amarillo has traditionally maintained a very substantial capacity of local wells," Atkinson said. The Randall County well field provides 6 percent of the city's needs. Most of the water from the Randall County well field is pumped in the summer. The Carson County well field, built in the 1950s, provides about 37 percent of the city's water. "The total groundwater reserves for the city of Amarillo is roughly 262,000 acres of water rights," Atkinson said. Only about 16,000 acres of that has been developed. "We are probably one of the top three groundwater owners in the state of Texas," Atkinson said. In addition to that, Atkinson said that, of CRMWA's 265,000 acres of water rights in Roberts County, less than 10 percent is developed. While there appears to be plenty of groundwater available at the moment, Atkinson acknowledged that groundwater is a finite resource. The good news, Atkinson said, is that the 170 to 230 years of water reserves do not take into account the one renewable water resource in the region, Lake Meredith. E-mail
comments about this story Posted: March 20, 2008
|
|
