Weekend rains have again bolstered area water supply, Water Utilities Director Terry Lauritsen said Monday.
“The overall water remaining is 91.1 percent, compared to last week’s 70.9 percent,” Lauritsen said. “We continue to increase our water supply due to rain in the watershed areas for Hulah and Copan lakes, which are located in Southeast Kansas.”
He said the increase is primarily due to inflow at Hulah Lake, however.
“The lake went from being 120 percent (full) to 180 percent (full), well into the flood control portion of the lake,” he said. “The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which releases water from the flood control portion of the lake to prevent flooding, will likely move fairly aggressively to increase the release this week to free up the flood control portion of the lake.
Copan Lake levels continue to climb as well, going from 40.7 percent to 44.9 percent.
“This is encouraging, but this lake has a long way to go before it gets to normal levels,” Lauritsen said.
Current lake levels:
Hulah Lake – 180 percent
Copan Lake – 44.9 percent
Hudson Lake – 89.2 percent
Caney River – 100 percent
The weighted water supply based on water right is 167.8 percent, up from last week’s 116.1 percent. Average water consumption last week was 4.53 million gallons per day.
For more information, see www.cityofbartlesville.org.