Waco considers year round water conservation plan as Lake Waco reaches full capacity

Waco, TX ( FOX 44 ) — It’s Earth Day and the City of Waco says Lake Waco is at full capacity.

Six months ago, Lake Waco was sitting at 55% capacity.

Despite this good news Waco council members are considering a year round conservation plan.

The City of Waco says they have to create a new conservation and drought contingency plan every five years.

They gathered info during the last two summer’s droughts and want to be resourceful.

“Things change really quickly. We know that it’s going to get hot again, it’s going to get dry again, so we want to be prepared for that,” said Jessica Emmett-Sellers, senior public information and communication specialist for the City of Waco..

Emmett-Sellers says the conservation plan may involve how often you take care of your yard.

“It alternates the days when people are doing large amounts of watering, like with sprinkler systems and irrigation systems. People can kind of hopefully alternate those days so that the system isn’t getting one big hit of water usage all at once,” said Emmett-Sellers.

The city also considered long term outcomes to create this plan.

“We’re looking to the future with population growth. We’re looking to the future for system capacity and making sure that our system capacity doesn’t get exceeded by the demand,” said Emmett-Sellers.

At the same time, the City of Temple dialed back water restrictions from Stage II to Stage I Monday due to recent rain.

Waco staff say its year-round conservation plan is to make its water supply last as long as possible.

“The world doesn’t make more water. We’re always relying on the water cycle and water re-use to give us water to be able to do the things we need to do, like fight fires, flush toilets and all that good stuff,” said Emmett-Sellers.

The conservation plan is on the council’s next meeting agenda.

You can click here to review the plan and give feedback online and in person.

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