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Willow Park moves to Stage 3 water conservation

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The city of Willow Park will be transitioning into Stage 3 in its Water Conservation Plan beginning Friday, June 29. Currently, the city is in Stage 2. Under Stage 3, residents are allowed to water from the hours of 5 a.m. to 8 a.m. only.  Even numbered addresses are allowed to water on Sunday and Thursday. Odd numbered addresses are allowed to water Saturday and Wednesday.  Hand watering and soaker hoses are allowed at all times during Stage 3.

While demand certainly plays a role in the movement to Stage 3, the main and most direct cause is that city wells are simply not producing as much as they once were.  

“We are not seeing wells produce and supply water to our tanks as we have in the past,” City Administrator Bryan Grimes said.  

The numbers have sharply declined, according to city staff.

“We have one well that was producing 28 gallons per minute (gpm) and that is now producing 14 gpm.  That is a 50 percent reduction in producing and supply to our tanks,” said Public Works Director Raman Johnson. “That is a significant negative impact. There are multiple wells on our system that has seen similar reduction in production. This is a well supply issue.”

In May 2017, Willow Park city wells were producing approximately 1.3 million gallons per day (gpd). Today, those same wells are producing approximately 1.087 million gallons per day. That is over a 200,000 gpd loss of supply in over a year.

The City of Willow Park is taking action to help alleviate this situation.  Well No. 9, which has not been online for several months, is now being put online no later than Friday, June 29.  Well No. 9 will add approximately 100,000 gpd to the system.  

“This should provide a big relief,” said Grimes. “This is a supply infrastructure issue. The aquifer has adequate supply.”

The City of Willow Park has said it will take further steps as soon as practical to resolve this supply issue, including re-drilling wells, cleaning wells, adding new wells, and re-construction of casing on existing wells.

Failure to comply with the water restriction could lead to fines between $50-500. 

“The bottom line is this: The city of Willow Park wells are antiquated, in need of repair, and it is the summer time.  We will resolve this issue,” Grimes said.

 

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