Jasper issues Emergency Water Conservation Declaration

The City of Jasper banned all exterior water usage in an emergency meeting of the Common Council and Utility Service Board on Friday. The Mandatory Water Conservation is effective immediately and bans the washing of cars, exterior surfaces (driveways, sidewalks, and homes) and all sprinklers. No hose watering is allowed in the city.

Violators of the ban face a warning on the first offense, a $100 fine on the second and a $200 fine, and/or their residential water supply shut off on the third violation. If conditions worsen the council stated they may extend restriction to water usage in the homes as well. Oeding stated they can add surcharges to customers’ bills that exceed the city allotted amount.

City employees will be aware of violators and the police department will be issuing the warnings and citations.

Water Utility Manager Mike Oeding informed the council and board that his immediate concern and the greatest usage of water were the sprinklers being used by residents to battle the drought. “Our consumption increased so much between the hours of 6 p.m. and 2 a.m. we can’t keep up, ” he said. “Last night our towers shut down for between 1 a.m. and 2 a.m. because they couldn’t keep up with the demand.”

The city has been in contact with the Army Corp of Engineers to increase the flow into the Patoka River. They increased it from 20 cubic feet per second (cfs) to 30 cfs this week, unfortunately the extended drought has dried pockets and ground up-stream from Jasper. Oeding told the groups he visited the dam in Dubois this morning and the water wasn’t high enough to go over.

This forced the city to ask for another increase in the discharge and it was increased to 40 cfs. Now the city is waiting for the additional water to saturate the ground and pockets upstream before it can begin to refill the city’s water supply. Oeding said he doesn’t expect water to start to rise behind the city dam until Sunday and may not be filled until Monday.

Councilmember Kevin Manley asked if a voluntary conservation effort should be approached first. Oeding told him the current needs of the city were beyond a voluntary water usage restriction.

Exacerbating the situation is the lowering of the city reservoir has made it difficult for the water treatment plant intake lines to take in water from the river. Oeding had a pump brought over from another city department to supplement the water intake. “We were bringing in 3000 gallons and losing 3400 gallons, so we were losing 400 gallons a minute.”

The Water Treatment plant would be turned off to for an hour to catch up with the demand but after installing the pump the facility is only having to be turned off for 20 minutes to catch up. A larger pump is being rented from a company in Evansville to increase the amount of water being brought into the plant.

The water is brought in, treated through several stages and then fed into a clearwell. From the clearwell, the water is pumped to the towers in the city to supply the residents. Normally the clearwell has 1.4 million gallons of water in it, today it is below 500,000 gallons and falling.

Dubois joined Ireland in issuing voluntary water usage restrictions. Both towns are partly supplied by the Jasper water utility.

During the meeting Councilman Tom Schmidt asked if the city fire department would have adequate water to fight a potential fire from fireworks. Oeding said he personally felt a ban on fireworks should be issued by the city but Mayor Seitz told the council he had been advised if the city banned fireworks they could face litigation from the state fireworks association due to the broadening of Indiana’s laws.

The city has asked the public to only not use personal fireworks in light of the current drought. Faced with the potential of fighting a fire with low water reserves and leading with a “do as I do” attitude the Common Council voted to cancel the Strassenfest Fireworks show planned for July 4.

Now the mayor is calling for volunteers to hand deliver over 8000 notices to the city’s water customers. The volunteers are to meet at the Jasper Train Depot at 1 p.m. today to receive materials, identification and instructions. We have to notify everyone of the ban by law and the mail is too slow for this emergency, Mayor Seitz said.