delivered from Hubbard Creek Reservoir, Lake Fort Phantom Hill and O.H. Ivie Reservoir. Albany, Anson, Breckenridge and Abilene are allowed to access water from Hubbard Creek, but the sprawling reservoir near Breckenridge only fills 19.5 percent of its capacity today. Abilene also draws water from Ivie (which sits at 18 percent of capacity) and Phantom (37.7 percent), and mixes the amount from each daily, depending on a variety of factors, in an effort to maximize its allocation from all three sources. When full, Ivie is almost eight times the size of Phantom, but Archibald says Abilene gets the least amount of its water from the reservoir near Ballinger. It shares Ivie water with five other cities. “Abilene averages using about 21 million gallons of water a days from winter through spring,” Archibald says, “We use 28-29 million gallons a day during the hottest months of the year. One hot day in the 1990s, we used 48 million gallons.” But the city has tamed its water demands in recent years, thanks in part to Archibald’s persistent reminders to save resources and a formal water plan stating the various stages of conservation guidelines. “Our people have bought into the idea that watering their lawn once a week is enough,” he says. At ACU, the university has used treated effluent water to keep its landscape green for years. A pond fronting the Hunter Welcome Center on Judge Ely Boulevard
serves both a cosmetic and strategically important purpose. “Effluent water is the lifeblood of our landscape and probably the most sustainable thing we do at ACU,” says Scott Warren, the university’s director of landscape and grounds. “The campus is irrigated from Faubus Fountain Lake, which is filled with effluent water and groundwater pumped from the basements of several of our buildings, in addition to runoff from rain when it falls. The use of reclaimed water we get from the city excludes us from Abilene’s mandated water rationing, although we still are committed to being good stewards of the water we have.”
The Answer: A NEw Reservoir Building a reservoir in Texas – where most lakes are created by a water-retention dam of some kind – is not a process for the faint of heart. It took 18 years from the time Abilene bought into the Ivie project until water was pumped 52.5 miles north to the city’s new treatment facility. Archibald was already talking about the need for a new water-source lake in 2008, when he won election to his second three-year term. While a new reservoir would not be a permanent fix, he said it could carry Abilene’s water needs for the next half-century and perhaps beyond. Water conservation measures are here to stay in Abilene, where city leaders understand the ups and downs of the
environment. “There’s not a drop to waste,” says a local marketing campaign about it. “We’re addressing short-term solutions with treated effluent water and water reuse projects while finding a new long-term solution,” says Archibald. The latter involves tens of thousands of acres of ranchland 40 miles north of Abilene for the proposed $240 million Cedar Ridge Reservoir. “Nothing, nothing trumps water, not health care, not education, not anything; we all know that,” declared Texas Rep. Susan King during The Hot Seat, a public forum held at ACU in March 2013 and hosted by The Texas Tribune. “People do fight about the mechanisms and the reservoirs and whose water will be diverted,” King continued. “There’s a lot of people who think the cities will come with a big straw and take our water. … It’s time we step up and do something.” Something was a bill Texas Sen. Troy Fraser backed for a one-time, $2 billion withdrawal from the state’s $14 billion Rainy Day Fund for infrastructure to build reservoirs, conservation efforts, desalination efforts, and “gray water” technology. Fraser proposed that $200 million be used for water needs in rural areas, $200 million for water conservation and/or reuse, and the balance for bond-based bridge financing for Cedar Ridge Reservoir and other large plans like it. Voters across Texas approved it in November 2013. How rare is a new reservoir in Texas?
STEVE BUTMAN
Faubus Fountain Lake on Judge Ely Boulevard is filled with conservation-friendly effluent water to irrigate the campus landscape and grounds.
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Spring-Summer 2014
ACU TODAY