FAIRHOPE – With water demand exceeding supply in Fairhope, the City Council voted in a special meeting Thursday night to urge residents to stop irrigating lawns and take other efforts to conserve water.
By Monday, water supplies were near normal, according to Mayor Karin Wilson. Storage capacity had reached 95 percent by Sunday.
The council voted Thursday to approve water conservation measures after being told that reserves are dropping faster than city wells can fill tanks.
“I would like to make an announcement to city residents,” Council President Jack Burrell said. “If you are on the Fairhope water system to please conserve water beginning immediately. I would ask you to please stop irrigating unless you have a new lawn or new landscaping and I would ask you to help us get through this time. Hopefully, we’ll get a little rain soon and we’ll get Well 8 back on-line as soon as the first of next week and we can relax this a little bit.”
Jay Whitman, director of the Water and Sewer Department, said the loss of one main pump, a broken water main and high demand have drained tank levels.
“We’re in uncharted territories,” Whitman said. “I’ve never seen it this low. I’m worried that if we don’t start recovering soon, it’s not just our customers not having the ability to take strong showers and stuff. My main concern is our fire protection’s going to be degraded.”
Last week, Well 8 broke down and will have to be replaced. The well had a capacity to pump 850,000 gallons a day. Without the well, the city has not been able to refill tanks overnight, causing levels to continue to drop.
“The good news is the pressure is holding, but I’ve never seen it this low in the 17 years I’ve been here, and I’ve been through three hurricanes” Whitman said. “We’re down to 29.5 feet. It’s still holding good. Pressure’s still good, but we’re not refilling at night. We lost our ability to refill.”
Whitman said that in additional to the loss of Well 8, another well was lost for part of a day last week when a car accident knocked out power. A water main break over the weekend also drained reserves.
Wilson said Monday that Well 8 should be back in service by Wednesday. She also praised residents’ efforts to conserve water during the shortage.
The council voted on Thursday to impose water restrictions, but because of advertising notice deadlines, the ordinance cannot go into effect until May 27, City Clerk Lisa Hanks said. By that time, city officials hope the worst of the situation will be resolved.
“We just need to ask everybody to conserve water, because if we can’t advertise it until the end of May, by then Well 8 is going to be back up,” Councilman Robert Brown said. “Hopefully, we’ll be able to just ask people to conserve water rather than worrying about enforcing phase two and three because you can’t enforce it until it’s publicized.”
Whitman said Fairhope water customers have been using about eight million gallons of water a day. Between January and April, residents and businesses used 60 million more gallons than they did in the same months in 2019.
