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Drought called worst in Texas history
By Dan Eakin, deakin@acnpapers.com
Despite recent rains, water shortage in North Texas continues to be a very serious problem, and the North Texas Municipal Water District (NTMWD) in June will likely urge Stage 4 water restrictions for member cities.
Charles McKissick and Joe Joplin, McKinney representatives on the NTMWD board, told McKinney City Council members at a work session Tuesday that residents should continue to conserve water as much as possible because of the strong chance that the drought will continue for at least several more months.
McKissick told the council that the board at first considered calling for Stage 4 restrictions to be implemented in April, but due to recent rains, postponed the request until June.
He added that a tremendous amount of rainfall this spring would be necessary for the board not to request that all 13 cities in the district implement Stage 4 restrictions in June.
Stage 4 restrictions would ban all lawn and garden watering and would implement other tougher restrictions on water usage. Stage 3 restrictions limited lawn watering to every other week, although the McKinney City Council voted to continue to allow lawn watering once a week.
Mayor Brian Loughmiller defended the council's decision by stating that McKinney reached the 10 percent reduction in water usage sought by the NTMWD board, even with allowing weekly lawn watering. He also said it would have been difficult to enforce the every-other-week requirement because the city has a limited number of enforcement officers.
Joplin said, "We are now in the worst drought in the history of Texas. All you have to do is drive on Highway 380 over Lake Lavon and see that we have a very serious problem."
Lake Lavon is now at less than half its usual capacity, and all lakes serving the NTMWD are far below normal levels.
Doubling the problem of water shortages in North Texas is the fact that the NTMWD cannot get water from Lake Texoma, a major water source, because of a federal law that bans the importation or transport of zebra mussels and similar beings from one state to another. Zebra mussels, which have been discovered in Lake Texoma, are small water creatures that can create maintenance problems in pipes, motors, filters, pumps and other equipment.
Joplin said that in the past, between 28 and 30 percent of the water for the NTMWD has come from Lake Texoma. He told the council that the discussion Tuesday night would not likely have taken place had it not been for the NTMWD's present inability to get water from Lake Texoma.
He said he and other NTMWD board members, as well as many city officials, have contacted congressmen in an attempt to get the law changed.
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