Water Conservation Urged Regardless of Rain

Officials in Manatee, Fla., continue to urge residents to conserve water since the supply is limited during the annual dry season.

“It’s low, but it’s not panic time yet,” said Bruce MacLeod, water treatment plant superintendent for Manatee County, of the area’s water supply. “We’re holding our own. People still need to conserve, but citizens are doing a good job conserving because our demand is down.”

Regional water managers meeting later this month may again tighten restrictions on consumption, he said.

MacLeod on Feb. 3 surveyed Lake Manatee, the county’s man-made reservoir, and calculated that it held 4.459 billion gallons.

He found that the lake in East Manatee had a level that ranked among the 25th percentile of all the elevations recorded on the same date in years past.

“Seventy-five percent of the time, it’s higher than it is now, but we’ve been a lot lower: In 2001, 1985,” he said.

Recent rainy days helped, providing 74 million gallons of water, he estimated.

“People don’t use as much water when it’s raining,” Mac-Leod said.

The Lake Manatee watershed, which funnels water to the reservoir, encompasses 129 square miles.

MacLeod urged residents to adhere to lawn sprinkling restrictions.

“We don’t know what next month will bring, or what the rest of this month will bring,” MacLeod said. “There’s no guarantee the rains will come at the end of June like they normally do.”

MacLeod’s view was seconded by Keith McGurn, superintendent of water for the city of Bradenton.

The city’s Bill Evers Reservoir, on the Braden River, usually averages a depth of about 14 feet, but now it is at about 12 feet, said McGurn. When it’s full, Evers holds 1.5 billion gallons of water.

“We’re in good condition for this time of year, but we’re looking at a real dry spring season,” he said. “It’s typically dry, but unfortunately, they’re predicting it’ll be worse than normal.”

Recent rains helped somewhat but McGurn cautioned, “We’re still looking at a shortfall from normal.”

The reservoir is replenished from a catchment area of about 70 square miles.

Over the past few years, local residents have been conscientious about adhering to water restrictions, he said.

The area has suffered a 27-inch rainfall deficit throughout the past three years, said Robyn Felix, media relations manager for the Southwest Florida Water Management District.

“That includes 2006, 2007 and 2008, so our lakes, rivers and aquifer levels are all below normal,” she said.

The district is comprised of 16 counties, including Manatee and Sarasota, with a combined usage of 1.37 billion gallons a day, she said.

When the water district board meets later this month, it may consider tightening water restrictions for the southern section of the district, which would mean Sarasota, Charlotte and DeSoto counties, she said.

For now, Felix is counseling people to check their irrigation timers and shut them off temporarily.

“If it’s rained recently, especially in winter months when your lawn doesn’t need as much water, skip a week of irrigation,” she said.