Some areas around have rainfall deficits of 21 inches.
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Labor Day weekend showers brought welcome relief to northwest Missouri which had been trapped in a heat wave for about eight weeks along with a drought that’s been going on for around 15 months. Some areas around have rainfall deficits of 21 inches.
Daviess County’s water supply has been under considerable strain as it tries to meet the needs of consumers.
The Jamesport Water Department is back on line today after a pump went down at the Jamesport lake, according to Delbert Prothero, water superintendent.
The pump went down at 3 p.m. Monday and was back in service by 3 p.m. Tuesday.
While it was down, the Jamesport school had to close along with all the restaurants.
Mr. Proterho said a temporary pump had been put in at the lake. The damaged pump has been taken to Kansas City to be repaired and the reason it went out should be determined when they take it apart.
The Jamesport Lake is down over 56 inches from normal as of today (Wednesday). It came up seven inches with the Labor Day weekend rains. Mr. Porthero said the lake is not the lowest he’s seen it. It was lower in 1989.
Water usage has probably double over last year, he said.
Gallatin water supply has gone from pumping 15 hours a day to pumping 22 to 24 hours a day since June, said Steve Reid of the city of Gallatin. About 270 gallons a minute is pumped.
“About twice as much water is being used as last year, Mr. Reid said. “This is the worst I’ve seen.”
Gallatin’s source is groundwater.
“Most of the increase is to rural water and people watering lawns,” he said.
Users are not cautioned to conserve water, Mr. Reid said, “Until it gets to where we can’t keep up. We were getting real close to that before we got the rain.”
After the weekend rains, which Mr. Reed measured 4 8/10 at the wastewater plant, the hours pumped fell back to normal on Sunday, at 16 hours.
Daviess County and most all of north Missouri sits atop a glacial drift and alluvium, according the Missouri Department of Natural resources geological survey. Mr. Reid said this aquifer helps explains why our area has not seen a severe depleting of groundwater during the drought.
There has been 200,000 to 300,000 gallon increase per month over water usage from last year, according to Karen Creel at the Gallatin office for PWSD #2.
Ms. Creel said usage of water over 10,000 gallons/month has doubled since May.
PWSD #2 is a distribution center for three wells located at CC1Breckenridge; CC2 Gallatin City, which is in Sheraton Township in the Kidder, Hamilton and Gallatin area; and CC3 Harrison County, which is the rural Gilman City and Coffey area. The water district serves the rural areas.
There were 40 people listed for over 10,000 gallon water usage in May. By August the number had increased to between 80 and 90 people.
After noticing an increase, the district began tracking users in April.
“We tracked to make sure there wasn’t a leak and that people were actually using the water,” said Ms. Creel.
She said the water district has also noticed an increase of people hooking up to the system.
“Most have said they’ve hooked up because their wells have gone dry or the spring, feeding the well, has dried up,” said Mrs. Creel.
PWSD #1 of Daviess County is located at Pattonsburg. It is a groundwater well.
“People are using water about as fast as we can put it in,” said Pat Stitt of the Pattonsburg office. “It’s hard to maintain adequate pressure with them using it so fast.”
Mrs. Sitt said there has been over a million gallons or more usage in the July-August months than last year.”
“We have plenty of groundwater, there’s no shortage there. But the ponds are all going dry. Our usage has really increased due to farmers watering their livestock. There’s been a lot of people watering gardens and yards and filling swimming pools.”
PWSD #1 customers were asked to conserve and refrain from using extra outside watering until the drought period was over.
PWSD #3 is Lake Viking. The lake is down about 24-26 inches, according to Ruth Gibson at the water district office. The lake has been dropping about an inch a week.
One inch equals about 17.6 million gallons of water.
However, most of that is due to evaporation, said Mrs. Gibson. “About 3.8% of that one inch of water is usage,” she said.
The numbers may seem alarming, but Mrs. Gibson says the Department of Natural Resources receives a weekly report on the lake’s condition.
“DNR says we’re still in good shape.”