Daily Progress, Jacksonville, TX

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July 27, 2008

Jacksonville in good shape water-wise, officials say

By Kelly Young

kyoung@jacksonvilleprogress.com

The Jacksonville’s water system is currently not experiencing problems, and city officials don’t care who knows it. At a time when other local municipalities are being forced to resort to instituting watering restrictions and enforcing mandatory curtailment, Jacksonville is proud to have plenty of water available for its citizens.

According to David Brock, utilities director for the city, Jacksonville’s water system is currently only operating at about 70 percent capacity.

“As an example, Wednesday’s pumpage from Lake Jacksonville was about 1.5 million gallons and we pumped about 3 million gallons from the wells, for a total pumpage for the day of between 4.5 and 4.7 million gallons. So with a maximum capacity of 6.5 million gallons, we are in good shape,” Brock said. “We’ve got the ability to pump another two million gallons a day, so you can see that we’re really not hurting, not in the dire straits that others are in.”

Brock said Jacksonville is one of the few cities in East Texas blessed with both surface water and groundwater. He also stated that Jacksonville is fairly unique in that it derives more water from its wells than from its lake.

“This is the first city that I’ve known of that has both a surface water plant and wells, where the wells out-produce the surface water plant. Tyler, for instance, does about 90 percent surface water and 10 percent well water,” he said. “The fact that our wells draw twice as much water as our plant treats is not normal, but it’s fairly normal for us.”

During the winter months, when demand is not as high, the city usually cuts back on well production and relies more on Lake Jacksonville water.

Brock said he would like to see the city eventually shift more of its water usage to the lake, removing some of the city’s reliance on the Carrizo-Wilcox Aquifer.

“With wells, you are kind of dependent on the condition of the aquifer. Also, in the long run, if you compare surface water treatment with well water production, it is usually going to be cheaper to treat the lake water,” Brock said.

According to Brock, the city’s good fortune right now is due in large part to proper planning in Jacksonville’s past.

“I think the main reason we are in a good situation right now, while others are struggling, is because the city had the forethought to plan for our water future. Years ago we shifted from Lake Acker which had grown too small and they built Lake Jacksonville, which we have full water rights to,” Brock said. “If you’re not careful to be progressive in acquiring water, whether its surface or groundwater, then you can get left behind.”

Jacksonville also hasn’t experienced the population boom that Bullard, and to a lesser extent Whitehouse, have experienced in recent years. Both cities were forced to cut or ban recreational water use this past week.

Brock credits his utilities crews, particularly the workers at the water treatment plant, for keeping the city’s system in such fine working order. He said he doesn’t anticipate Jacksonville will need to take drastic measures this summer.

“We are currently in a mild drought, and the lake is down about a foot, but at this point I don’t see us needing to issue any restrictions this year. Now if it doesn’t rain between now and October, things could get tight, but I don’t foresee that happening,” he said. “We are nowhere near a critical stage, but that doesn’t mean we can afford to waste water. We encourage people to use all the water they need, but to conserve all the water they can.”

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