At their meeting on Wednesday, CRMWD’s Board of Directors heard engineering reports on the status of water supplies and thoroughly reviewed projected supplies under the worst possible conditions.
The Board’s conclusions according to president Charles R. Perry, is that the district has adequate supplies past 2004 without rationing or other drastic measures.
“The Board has determined that supplies are adequate all the way into 2005,” Perry said, pointing out that there has never been a zero runoff year in the 53-year history of CRMWD. “If rainfall continues, even at the current low rates, rationing just does not appear likely in the near future.
“What most people don’t understand is that a one or two-year supply of water is the normal design criteria for reservoirs in areas such as Fort Worth. We must plan for more storage here because we are in a drought-prone area.
“At current usage levels, we would have more than a 15-year supply if all three of our reservoirs were full, which is unheard of in other regions of Texas, ” said Perry, adding that the capacity is necessary here because of persistent droughts.
“To the uninformed, it sounds frightening to say our current supplies are 20% of our capacity, but that really is a significant amount of water – enough to supply the district’s usage for 3 years. Our extremely large reservoirs allow us to be prepared to capture all we can when rains do fall.”
That capacity is one reason CRMWD has adequate supplies today in spite of the fact that the current drought is certain to be the new drought of record for the region.
The district has recently increased its groundwater delivery capabilities and is pursuing options ranging from water acquisitions to demineralization of existing non-potable supplies to prepare for future needs. Preparedness is the reason the member cities do not need to ration water even though there has only been one year with above-average inflows since the drought officially began in January 1993.
“We are in a slightly better position than we were one year ago thanks to our well field expansion in Ward County and early summer rains during 2003,” Perry said. Inflows over that two-week period produced more than 79,000 acre-feet and accounted for most of the one-year supply of surface water caught last year.
The district has a sophisticated computer model it uses to analyze supply and water delivery scenarios under several different conditions. It also takes into account the status of non-district reservoirs and well fields that are part of the sources of supply of CRMWD’s larger customer cities to predict water demands.
Supplies and capacities are analyzed using historical inflows, usage, demand projections and evaporation or transportation loss data. With the model, district engineers can predict the future water supply status for 24 months or more under a variety of conditions from zero to 100% of average annual inflows. That model was the basis of the board’s stance on water supplies.
“We are absolutely confident in this determination,” Perry said, pointing out the worst-case episodes from the district’s history.
The historical average total annual inflow for all district reservoirs is 222,151 acre-feet. During the first 10 years of the current drought, inflows averaged about 138,000 acre-feet per year.
Inflows for 2002 were the lowest since the drought began, producing only 67,363 acre-feet of water. The total for 2003 was 116,786 acre-feet. Supplies would begin to increase again if the district’s reservoirs were to receive more than approximately 166,000 acre-feet in a year, or about 75% of the average.
For today, Perry says, the district’s current supplies are adequate and rationing would only serve to limit the revenues of the district and its member and customer cities at a time when those funds are needed to insure future supplies.
“It would be great if CRMWD could save water in its lakes for next year, but we must use it or lose it,” Perry said, pointing out that in West Texas, water saved through rationing would literally evaporate into thin air, along with the revenues it would otherwise have produced.
CRMWD loses more water to evaporation, saltcedar and releases for the Concho water snake than is sold each year and solutions to those problems are among the District’s immediate top priority goals.
CRMWD is involved in efforts with state and federal agencies to find a solution to the saltcedar problem. Perry added that the district has worked for years to convince the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service to de-list the snake and establish more sensible requirements for required releases of water from the Spence and Ivie Reservoirs.
Sensible is also the word Perry used to describe the actions all West Texans should take with regard to water use.
“We live in a semi-arid region and it is always smart to use this precious resource sensibly and practice water conservation,” Perry said, pointing out that no matter how much water flows down the street from sprinkler systems, grass is unlikely and undesirable to grow on asphalt.
Some of the water conservation practices recommended by the district are:
•Minimize outdoor water use in summer when evaporation and water demands are high.
•Minimize outdoor use by landscaping with drought tolerant plants.
•Set sprinkler systems to maximize water effectiveness without over-watering or runoff.
•Set sprinklers to run at night or in early morning when evaporation will be minimal.
•Turn sprinkler systems off after rains or during high winds.
•Use hose shutoffs to minimize lost water when washing cars.
•Run dishwashers and clothes washers with full loads.
•Don’t run water continuously while brushing teeth, washing dishes or other similar activities.
The district will continue to work toward the goals of limiting water losses to saltcedar and unnecessary releases and to encourage conservation.
Perry said these actions, not rationing, show the greatest potential for short-term solutions to the drought.