Brown County Water Improvement District (BCWID) General Manager Dennis Spinks activated Stage 3 of their drought contingency plan Tuesday night in an effort to have water customers conserve.

“What we are asking for is a 10% reduction in water use from this point, and this will allow our wholesale customers to activate the Stage 3 of their plan with restrictions that they put in place on their retail customers,” Spinks said.

The BCWID’s implementation of Stage 3 will signal other wholesale water customers including Brownwood, Early, Bangs, Brookesmith SUD, and Zephyr Water Supply Corporation to implement their Stage 3 water restrictions which will outline specific regulations for outdoor water usage.

Currently, Lake Brownwood is 15.40 feet below spillway level and is at its lowest level since 1934, according to Spinks.  At this level, the lake has about a 2 year supply left, according to engineering studies.

“We have a 2 year supply of water left in that lake,” Spinks said.  “The last year’s supply is for an emergency reserve supply, so at this point we have just a little bit less than one year supply of water plus the emergency reserve supply.  We don’t want to go into that emergency reserve supply unless we absolutely have to; that may occur.”

Spinks also outlined not only the severity of the drought, but the importance of conserving water if the drought maintains for an extended period of time.

“At this point, there are not viable alternative sources for water for Brown County,” Spinks said.  “We need to conserve what we have in the lake.  If it takes more severe restrictions to be put in place, then we are going to have to put those in place, but we are going to have to conserve what we have at this time until this drought breaks and we get sufficient rainfall to put some water back in the lake.”

Spinks said that if the lake received a 3 foot rise in elevation from rainfall, it would gain about a year’s supply of water.   If significant rain does not come over the next two years, area residents could be facing some harsh realities.

“There is the real possibility that we may not be able to have the water for household use in two years time if this drought doesn’t break,” Spinks said.

According to Spinks, the last time Lake Brownwood was at full capacity was in 2007.

Area cities and water retailers are expected to announce their specific water restrictions to customers within a few days.