Water levels in the treated water tanks have dropped consistently throughout July. Community water use has increased to around 3 million gallons a day while the flows from the springs and wells have decreased, as is common in the summer.
Current water restrictions can be found at: https://www.rawlinswy.gov/379/Outdoor-Irrigation-Restrictions
If use does not go down, “Limited Water Use” will likely be declared, and all outdoor irrigation will cease. Water restrictions will be in place all summer and may become more strict if flows continue to decrease from the springs and wells.
The City is currently:
- Pausing all park and cemetery irrigation until further notice. Parks will likely be watered every other week moving forward.
- Using water from Peaking reservoir at a low rate, due to its unusually high turbidity.
- Switching water flows from the the existing woodstave pipeline to the new 10,000 feet of PVC pipe.
- Our contracted engineers made their initial review of the Water Pretreatment Plant, and our staff is in the process of ordering the necessary equipment and parts, as well as cleaning and preparing the plant. After the review, it is now clear the plant will not be online this watering season.
- Preparing to hire an engineering firm to design the blow-offs and cathodic protection on our main 32-mile steel transmission line funded by the $675,000 State Land and Investment Board (SLIB) grant
- Finalizing a $7,452,173.91 American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) 2022-23 Grant for replacement of a portion of the wood stave pipeline and spring boxes in the Sage Creek Basin and provide repairs to the 32-mile pipeline from Sage Creek Basin
Original source can be found here.