Drought concerns cause water conservation notice in Loudon Co.

Drought concerns cause water conservation notice in Loudon Co.

June 1, 2007

By ERICA ESTEP
6 News Reporter

LENOIR CITY (WATE) -- The severe drought in East Tennessee continues affecting utility companies. The Lenoir City Utilities Board (LCUB) is now asking its 8,500 customers to conserve water.

The utility gets its water from Watts Bar Lake, but demand during the drought is causing the water tank levels to drop.

LCUB is asking business and homeowners with irrigation or sprinkler systems to cut back to watering just one hour a week, early in the morning.

And this cutback could be just the beginning. "Some people may try, but the majority will not," says Steve Windsor, an area homeowner.

Windsor admits there are other ways to conserve water, but it will be difficult. "You know washing clothes, you've got to wash your clothes. Taking baths, you're going to take a bath, cars and so forth. That's going to be tough. Hopefully, the situation doesn't get that bad here in this water in this water country."

At the water department, the staff is watching the levels in their storage tanks plummet.

"It might become a time where we would have to lock out the irrigation meters and we don't want to do that. That's not good customer service," says LCUB water manager Greg Jones.  

Right now, LCUB is shuffling water from one tank to another to keep up with demand.

Although lake levels are down, Jones says that isn't what's causing this water emergency. He says water levels are dropping due to the lack of rain and customers using more.

"The rainfall has just not been there so people are watering more often, using more water for swimming pools," Jones says. "They are filling up pools more often because of the evaporation rate."

Another area homeowner, Angela Wampler, says, "I don't think it's real realistic. We'll all have dead grass and no flowers if we water one hour a week."

However, without conservation and rain, Jones admits no water could be a reality. "Yes, there's always that chance. Hopefully with the water conservation, we won't get to that point where there's people without water. We have had people without water over the Memorial Day weekend because of our tank levels."

"We can try," Wampler says, "but it will be hard not to water the lawn when you've put so much money into it. Probably the best thing we can do is pray for rain." 

LCUB is asking customers with:

• Even numbered addresses to only water on Tuesday mornings from 1:00 to 2:00 a.m. 
• Odd numbered addresses to water only on Wednesday mornings
• Commercial and business owners are asked to water only on Thursday mornings.  

In May, First Utility District asked its customers in West Knoxville and Farragut to cut back on their water usage.