Voluntary conservation urged due to low Hulah Lake levels
Recent rains have helped a little but not enough to pull the region from drought conditions plaguing the area in recent months, City Water Utilities Director Terry Lauritsen said this week.
“Every little bit of rain we get helps, of course, but a lot more will be required to reverse the declining numbers we’re seeing in our overall water supply,” Lauritsen said.
And that rain is needed in a specific area that actually has little to do with Bartlesville.
“While we do utilize water from the City-owned Hudson Lake and the Caney River, our primary water supply source is Hulah Lake,” Lauritsen said. “We pump water from Hulah Lake into Hudson Lake, and then we take the water from there into our water treatment plant and distribute it to our customers. The watershed for Hulah Lake is actually in Southeast Kansas, and they’ve been under extreme drought conditions for the past eight months. So that’s really where we need it to rain the most.”
Until that happens, conservation is still needed, he said.
“Our overall water supply is currently at 65 percent and has declined nearly every week since we started alerting the public to this issue in December 2022,” Lauritsen said. “Normally, at this time of year, we are looking at an overall supply of 90 percent or more. So that gives you an idea of how serious this could become if we don’t see rain in that area in the near future.”
While the situation is not yet critical, it could become that way quickly, he said.
“I would say if we don’t receive significant rainfall in the Hulah Lake watershed in the next 30 days, we could be looking at asking the City Council to implement more restrictive measures to help prolong the water supply we have,” he said.
Those measures could include restrictions on outdoor watering and other excessive use, as well as water rate increases intended to slow use until drought conditions have lifted, he said.
Lauritsen said average water consumption has fluctuated a bit since the public awareness campaign began last year, but it was higher last week than at any point since the beginning of the year.
“Our average water consumption last week was 4.73 mgd (million gallons of water per day),” he said. “The lowest we’ve seen since the campaign began was 4.17 percent, and that was last week. Typical consumption for this time of year is 4-5 mgd. We really need to be at that lower end and are asking all of our water customers to help”
“We want the public to understand where we are and what is needed to ensure that we have water for our basic needs in the foreseeable future,” he said, citing simple measures that could have a significant impact. “Just taking shorter showers and turning the water off when it’s not being used can make a big difference. If everyone would just do a little, it could have a huge impact on our water availability, especially as we enter warmer, dryer months,” he said.
For more information, see Conservation Matters.