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October 16, 2007

Chatsworth Water Works manager says there’s enough to supply city for 90 days

By Misty Watson

CHATSWORTH — Even if the water level at Carters Lake continues to drop as it has during the past month, Chatsworth Water Works will still be able to provide its customers with water from the lake for at least 60 days, Water Works manager Tom Martin said Tuesday.

Water Works also draws water from a spring in Eton and a well near Sumach Creek, and it buys water from the city of Calhoun. Including those sources, Martin expects to have enough water to last 90 days if there is no rainfall.

Given the drought the northwest region of the state is experiencing, Murray County is “in pretty good shape,” Martin said. He believes Murray County is in better condition than some other areas of the sate because “a bigger part of our demand now isn’t industrial. It’s residential.”

“If our customers quit watering lawns and washing cars it has a significant impact, and the cooler temperatures are helping a lot,” Martin said. “We are a bedroom community, and we can get by with less water for certain things.”

The Army Corps of Engineers “maintains the levels in Carters pretty good,” he said. “If they don’t drop significantly we will be OK.” Water Works officials recently moved the pump at Carters 150 feet further into the lake, allowing water to be pumped even when lake levels drop.

Water Works was pulling 1,300 gallons a minute from the spring in Eton, but has reduced that to 1,150, Martin said.

“We are pulling 86 percent (of what is normally taken) from it,” he said. “It hasn’t really deplenished that much.”

Water Works is purchasing between 150,000 and 200,000 gallons of water a day from Calhoun, and “we were pulling 500,000,” Martin said. “If we had to, we could pump more from Calhoun.”

“We are doing well considering the drought we are in,” Martin said, but he worries about the beginning of next summer.

“If we don’t get significant rainfall this winter, we will be in a drought at the beginning of next summer,” he said.

The county is already under state-implemented level four restrictions that ban outdoor water use with certain exemptions, such as for commercial car washes, but Martin says he is encouraging people to conserve as much as possible.

“We don’t know what’s going to happen for the next 60 to 90 days” or this winter, he said.

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