With lakes nearly full, water district will lift drought restrictions
April showers brought May flowers and, as the rain continued, even brought an end to Stage 1 drought restrictions from the Tarrant Regional Water District.
But that won’t affect Fort Worth’s water customers, because the City Council made twice-a-week watering permanent in April 2014 as part of a conservation plan.
The end of the water district’s restrictions will take effect Monday.
In December 2014, “that briefing was, ‘Oh, dear, the drought is really bad and we are probably going into Stage 2 drought,’” Linda Christie, the water district’s community and government relations director, told the City Council on Tuesday.
As of Tuesday, however, both the Richland-Chambers and Cedar Creek reservoirs were at more than 100 percent capacity, Christie said. Eagle Mountain Lake is also 100 percent full, and the floodgates there have been opened slightly to start filling Lake Worth downstream.
Lake Worth was at 84 percent capacity, but that will also rise, Christie said.
From Jan. 1 until about 5 p.m. Tuesday, Dallas/Fort Worth Airport had received 18.17 inches of rain, compared with 4.87 inches for the same time last year, according to the National Weather Service in Fort Worth.
Christie said the water district still encourages consumers to conserve water because that delays the need for costly infrastructure projects and protects the water supply.
Mayor Betsy Price urged residents to have their sprinkler systems tested — a free service offered by the water district and area cities. She said someone reported her the other night because the sprinklers at her house came on after it rained.
“It has been working perfectly and it just malfunctioned one night and somebody reported it, and I appreciated that report,” Price said.
Christie agreed, urging residents to call their city water department to get a sprinkler audit. The Fort Worth Water Department is at 817-392-4477.
The Tarrant Regional Water District instituted Stage 1 restrictions in June 2013, and lake levels had to reach 95 percent capacity for the limits to end.
Caty Hirst, 817-390-7984
Twitter: @catyhirst
Council rejects QuikTrip
The City Council voted unanimously Tuesday night to reject a request for a zoning change that would allow a QuikTrip gas station on Hulen Street at Diaz and Houghton Avenues. Councilman Danny Scarth was absent.
Several residents spoke against the change, citing concerns about noise, increased traffic and existing street size. QuikTrip proposed a similar operation just north of this property in 2007, and that case was also denied because of neighborhood opposition. — Caty Hirst
This story was originally published May 12, 2015 at 8:34 PM with the headline "With lakes nearly full, water district will lift drought restrictions."