If everything works well, the city of Emporia will end its request for voluntary water conservation at 9 pm Friday.
City Manager Trey Cocking has been providing daily updates on KVOE’s Morning Show after issuing an urgent request to conserve water Wednesday morning. Despite heavy demand and the near-complete draining of the city’s southeast water tower, he says the overall system did its job.
Normal demand is 6-8 million gallons a day. The demand almost completely drained the Industrial Park water tower near Warren Way and pushed the East 12th Avenue tower to one-third of capacity, basically because the city’s water treatment pumps couldn’t keep up with demand Tuesday and Wednesday. Those levels have improved. Cocking says the East 12th Avenue water tower is full at 31.4 feet as of 6:15 am. The tower near Warren Way is at 60 percent capacity, or at its regular resting point, at almost 19 feet.
Cocking credited residents and local industrial partners for their willingness to help.
Voluntary restrictions still involve home car washes, lawn watering and swimming pool refills until 9 pm. The city will post an update through its MyAlert mass communication system once the conservation request is lifted. Residents can sign up for email, text or phone alerts on the city website, emporiaks.gov, under the Programs and Services drop-down tab.
5:45 am Friday: Emporia water supply situation stabilizing, but voluntary conservation request remains
Emporia’s water supply appears to have stabilized despite a water main break near one of the city’s water towers Thursday.
City Manager Trey Cocking says the East 12th Avenue water tower is full at 31.4 feet as of 6:15 am. The tower near East South and Carter is at 60 percent capacity, or at its regular resting point, at almost 19 feet. Both numbers are improvements from a prior update at 10 pm Thursday. The water’s depth inside the East 12th Avenue tower near Interstate 35 was at 28.5 feet, while the depth inside the Warren Way tower near Industrial Park 3 was at 17.2 feet.
The city’s peak demand rate of 12.5 million gallons per day — or 8,700 gallons a minute — begins shortly after 6 am as a number of the city’s manufacturers ramp up their demand.
The city will continue to monitor the short-term situation after water demand outstripped the water tower supply — not the supply as a whole. Demand for water went around 50 percent above normal flow for Monday and Tuesday, causing concerns by Tuesday evening and prompting the city to ask residents and business customers to conserve. The city’s request continues for residents to limit their water use voluntarily by ending home car washes, lawn watering efforts and swimming pool refills at least until the excessive heat warning ends at 9 pm Friday.
Meanwhile, the city had to shut off water supply for part of East South Avenue after a 10-inch line broke around 2:30 pm. Service was disrupted from Weaver Street west to Grand Boulevard on the north side of the Michelin production facility and less than half a mile east of the water tower. Public Works Director Dean Grant says the break’s closeness to the water tower was not a concern when it came to water service.
It took over four hours to find and repair the break.
As the voluntary restrictions are set to end Friday night, residents are also asked to report any and all water leaks to Public Works at 620-340-6339.
