ALTUS Okla_ The lingering
drought has forced the City of Altus
to look at some drastic measures when it comes to water rationing.
Altus's main water
source, the Tom Steed Reservoir in Kiowa
County, has dried up so
much that it's now just 37% full. Next Tuesday, the Altus city council will decide whether to
impose water restrictions.
However, Councilman
Rick Henry said there is another solution. It lies in underground water wells
and pipes that run in the southern part of the city.
He said even
though the lake is only 37% full, water officials say that's enough to last
three more years. That's assuming there's no significant rainfall during that
time. So he believes that's plenty of time to work on an alternate source.
"Before we
had the water treatment plant and got water from Tom Steed," Henry said. "We
had wells south of town, and that's where the primary water came from."
Once the
reservoir was built, the city stopped using the water wells. However, they
built a pipeline from those wells to Texas,
in order to sell that water to towns there. Councilman Henry believes the time
is now right for Altus
to tap back into those wells for their own use.
"Now we
reverse that," Henry said. "We sell water to people south of town, but we can
very easily lay another pipeline down to continue to sell to people south of
us. It will reverse the flow in our major pipeline to bring water up."
He said both
the well water and surface water from Tom Steed will create better quality of
water for residents.
"The water
that we have has too much organic matter dissolved in it," Henry said. "So,
that type of water does not work well with our plant. We're actually treating
it a little bit before putting it in the clarifier. We're doing some treatment
before we put it into the plant. When you blend it, you've already started the
process of what we're doing now with the clarifier."
His only
concern would be finding the money to do this. He said it's important the city
does find it.
"We have
some economic activity happening now finally," Henry said. "We can bring some
jobs to town. It's very positive. We have momentum on our side, the last thing
I want to do is tell these people ‘Oh, by the way, we don't have any water for
you."
Councilman Henry
said right now, he's looking at funding from the Oklahoma Water Resources Board,
but that's just one option. He was not able to offer an estimate of how much
that pipeline project might cost.
