With one of five wells out of service, the City of Moscow is facing water resources reaching and possibly exceeding capacity.
“In the later part of June, one of the city’s wells developed an electrical problem in the motor,” said Tom Scallorn, city water manager. “It had to be sent in for repair.”
The well that will be out of service until September produces about 40 percent of the city’s water supply, meaning the other wells have to make up for the lost production capabilities.
“If the four other wells run 21 hours a day they will pump 4.5 million gallons, if we run them 24 hours they will pump 4.9 million gallons,” Scallorn said. “The average from August so far has been 4.2 million.”
Scallorn said the amount of water people have been using is reaching maximum capacity, and may rise considering the warm temperatures from this weekend and predicted for the next week.
If water demands exceed production capabilities, Scallorn said they can take water out of storage, but only for a short period of time–a few hours.
“If it exceeds more than a few hours and continues for a day or two our only recourse is to use our contingency plan to use one of UI’s wells, and we have that set up,” Scallorn said.
The city is currently requesting residents to conserve water when possible, including only watering during conservation hours–6 p.m. to 10 a.m.
“If voluntary reductions don’t work, it would escalate,” Scallorn said.
This would mean the voluntary restrictions would become mandatory and those violating them could face a fine.
“We would prefer if to not get that serious of a problem and appreciate people conserving,” Scallorn said.
Katy Sword can be reached at [email protected]