The Texas drought continues to take its toll on Brown County and especially Lake Brownwood as the lake is expected to reach 1410 msl (mean sea level) in a few days which is 15 feet below spillway level. This level is the trigger point for the Stage 3 drought contingency plan to be implemented by the Brown County Water Improvement District (BCWID), but officials say that they are planning to wait a few weeks before tightening on outdoor water restrictions.
“We will probably hit the Stage 3 trigger point this week,” said BCWID general manager Dennis Spinks. “We won’t initiate Stage 3 until our next board meeting.” The district’s next board meeting is scheduled for September 13th.
Spinks said that the engineering firm of Freese and Nichols is evaluating the district’s drought contingency plan and Lake Brownwood. The BCWID board will hear a report from the firm before implementing Stage 3 water restrictions.
Spinks indicated that the district’s current drought plan needed some modifications to take into consideration a longer drought.
“The long range forecast is that we will be in a drought for next year as well,” Spinks said. “We want to look at where we will be in 1 year.”
Spinks said that one component of the drought contingency plan that will likely be added is Stage 4 water restrictions. The district’s current plan does not have a Stage 4 component which would eliminate all outdoor watering.
Spinks also said that Freese and Nichols will attempt to better estimate the amount of water left in the lake. With years of sedimentation, older estimates of the lake’s volume may not be accurate.
“Without a true volumetric study, we don’t really know how much water we may have,” Spinks said. “Freese and Nichols could get us more accurate estimates than we can come up with ourselves.”
City Manager Bobby Rountree said that Brownwood would implement their Stage 3 water restrictions once BCWID implements theirs. Stage 3 restrictions will limit personal water use to designated days between the hours of 7:00 p.m. and 9:00 a.m. Designated days defined as: (a) Any odd number calendar day, odd numbered residences may water. (b) Any even numbered calendar day, even numbered residences may water.
Currently, Stage 2 water restrictions are in effect which prohibits outdoor watering between the hours of noon and 6pm daily.
Spinks also commented on a story reported by BrownwoodNews.com last week regarding the current color of the water supply. He said that the district has received numerous calls regarding the color of the water, and reiterated that the color of the water does not affect its quality. He said that they have contacted the TECQ and other agencies to help remedy the situation. CLICK HERE for the previous story.