Local Water Supplies at Dire Low

Water supply continues to be a worry for San Angelo residents. Tuesday evening Ricky Dickson, Water Utilities Director, addressed the topic at the Santa Rita Homeowners’ Association meeting.

Dickson noted that without future rain or run off San Angelo only has 14 months of local water supply.

“There will be water in the river this year, but I can’t promise that for next year,” he said referring to Concho River and the upcoming Riverfest in October.

Since June the city has been under drought level 2. If water supply does not increase by December, San Angelo could reach drought level 3.

The Concho River is not the only body of water Dickson can’t promise will be here next year. The O.H. Ivie Reservoir is a primary source of water for the city and is slowly dwindling down as well.

“With our current usage and no additional run-on by November of next year it will be gone,” he said of O.H. Ivie.

According to Dickson, Lake Nasworthy currently holds a little less than 8,000 acre feet of water.

“...We stopped in mid-July because we pumped all the water we could out of it,” Dickson said of no longer using Lake Nasworthy as a source of water.

Based on calculations by the Texas Water Development Board, O.C. Fisher Lake has dropped in capacity from 1.3% in June to now being only 0.8% full. According to the same calculations, the Twin Buttes Reservoir can be measured at 0% full.

With the local water sources dissipating, Dickson stated the importance of alternate sources such as the Hickory Aquifer.

“If we don’t have any additional rain or run-off, we are going to be out of local supplies. That is why when you talk about this Hickory Project it is so vital to the community,” Dickson said.

The Hickory Aquifer Project is expected to be finished later this year. It will provide an additional water source to San Angelo.

However, much treatment will be needed for water from the aquifer.

The Texas Water Development Board has stated that “the upper portion of the aquifer typically contains iron in excess of the state's secondary drinking water standards.”

“Of greater concern is naturally occurring radioactivity... ,” the Board said, “[which is] commonly found in excess of the state's primary drinking water standards.”

Unlike the floods of Asia, it takes a drought to bring radiation to West Texas.