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24 August 2023
EMPORIA (KSNT) – Hot weather is raising the demand for water in Emporia, and therefore, affecting its water supply.
The City of Emporia is encouraging people to be conscious of their water usage during this heat wave. The water levels in the city’s water towers are much lower than normal, prompting the city to release a ‘Voluntary Water Conservation’ alert just before 9 a.m. Emporia City Manager Trey Cocking told 27 News this is the highest demand for water he’s seen in over a decade.
“Grocery stores, they’re having to run water over their cooler systems to keep their systems cool,” Cocking said. “It’s just a lot more of a demand on the system right now. Evaporation is, you know with pools and that, but really it’s industrial needs, air conditioner needs.”
And also, for emergency services.
“Water levels have to remain at a certain height in our towers to allow us to have the pressure at the height that we need to do our job,” fire chief Brandon Beck said.
Monitoring the water tower levels is essential for entities like the Emporia Fire Department.
“We have a fire protection level,” Cocking said. “That’s first and foremost making sure we don’t get down below the fire protection levels. Which right now we’re climbing up. We’re getting a little closer than we want to be to the fire protection levels. However, we’re climbing now, we’ve continued to climb this morning.”
Considering levels in the towers were decreasing all day yester, both Cocking and Beck said having citizens conserve their water makes a big difference.
“We all need to be together on this, and any little bit anybody can do to help us, especially through today, will really help out,” Cocking said.
Cocking said best case scenario, both towers will be completely filled up and able to hold water within the next 24 hours.
“We appreciate the community’s support in conserving water so we can have the water we need in the case of emergency or a fire where life safety is an important thing for us to be taking care of,” Beck said.
The City of Emporia announced today it will also start work on a major water line project starting in September. It plans to also make additions to the 12th Avenue storage tank, allowing for a higher level of usable water.