Lake Catoma on Thursday, Jan. 5, 2017
CULLMAN – The Cullman County Commission on Tuesday morning announced that Phase III of the County's Emergency Water Conservation Plan has been officially implemented. This means that customers are now being asked to only use 85 percent of the amount of water they normally consume. Last Thursday, Jan. 5, City Water customers were put under the same restrictions, as Cullman Mayor Wood Jacobs signed a Declaration of Urgency declaring that Phase III of the City’s Emergency Water Conservation Plan would be implemented beginning Friday, Jan.6.
Here's how the County's plan reads:
Customer Percentage Curtailment
No customer shall make, cause, use, or permit the use of water from the System for any purpose in an amount in excess of 85% of the amount used during the base period. The “Base Period” is defined as the amount of water used on a customer’s premises during the corresponding billing period in the prior twelve months. Any customer who was not a customer on the premises for which service was billed by the System during the base period shall be assigned the same base for such or similar premises. The System shall have the discretion to adjust such base in the event such customer’s use if substantially different. Summation: Water usage is to be decreased by 15% from the same month the previous year.
County water customers have been under restrictions since Nov. 16, and City customers since the last week of October.
City Water Treatment Plant Superintendent David Freeman said Tuesday that the city and county's main water source, Lake Catoma, is holding at 22 feet below full pool. He is hopeful, however, that rain forecasted for this week will make a difference.
"Before, when we got a couple of inches it didn't make a difference because the ground was so dry. Now, the ground is pretty much saturated and the retention ponds are filling up."
“All of our customers have done a great job conserving water these past few months,” said Jacobs on Thursday. “We have made the decision not to initiate the monetary fines and penalties contained in the ordinance at this time because we feel that it is not necessary to encourage our customers to continue to conserve water.”
According to a news release from the mayor's office last week, Jacobs and Cullman County Commission Chairman Kenneth Walker were in agreement with the implementation of Phase III water conservation measures. County water systems have their own water conservation plans, but their plans follow roughly the same guidelines as the City’s water conservation plan.
There has been some confusion over which customers are to follow which restrictions. It is important to understand that the City's restrictions apply to all customers, whether they be residential, business or wholesale. Cullman County Water and other municipal water companies including Garden City, Johnsons Crossing and VAW, etc. are customers of City of Cullman Water; however, each water system should have its own emergency water conservation plan and share it with their direct customers at the appropriate time.
Phase III Emergency Water Conservation Cullman County by cullmansense on Scribd
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