City's drought advisory proactive - Tuesday, December 08, 2009 | Fostoria Review Times

Local News

Tuesday, December 08, 2009

City's drought advisory proactive

By CHANDRA NIKLEWSKI

STAFF WRITER

Sometimes a drought is not a drought.

Mayor John Davoli said the water shortage in Fostoria is not much of a shortage yet and that notices regarding water conservation are a proactive measure.

"If we get a halfway decent amount of rain this spring, we'll be fine," Davoli said.

Although Reservoirs 4, 5 and 6 are at 50 percent capacity of usable water, Davoli said that amount would last 200 days if there were no precipitation.

However, Davoli said at maximum, Fostoria has more than 2 billion gallons of water above ground.

"Our 50 percent is a lot better than other towns' 50 percent," Davoli said.

The mayor said many calls have come into his office regarding the water shortage, but he explained nothing is dire at this time.

"It's not a warning or anything like that. It's just an advisory," he said.

Davoli said the advisory affects large and small consumers and residents in Arcadia, which buys its water from Fostoria, will also receive a notice.

"(Arcadia) is just a regular water customer like everyone else," Davoli said.

Residents have been encouraged to check for leaks and make necessary repairs.

Davoli said the small drips from sinks and the leaks which cause a toilet to run for a short time every 10 minutes or so can add up.

"It may not sound like much, but that's a lot of water," Davoli said.

Davoli said fixing small leaks can also help consumers with their water bills.

"Not only does (fixing leaks) save the city water, it saves (the customer) money," Davoli said.

Regardless of the amount of water in the reservoirs, Davoli explained Fostoria has a second option for water.

"Fostoria's quite blessed because besides our six reservoirs, we have some wells we can pump from," Davoli explained.

But he would prefer the city not resort to that measure.

The hardness of the water would require more treatment and would cost the city more money to treat properly.

Conserving water now lowers the chances the water from the wells would have to be used.

"We're trying to get ahead of the curve on this," Davoli explained.

Davoli said the city pulls water from a small branch of the Portage River, but can only take on so much to keep the reservoirs from experiencing problems with the banks.

"A lot of times we'll start pumping and we'll get the reservoirs filled up and then we let the water pass by," Davoli said.

"Next year we'll just keep pumping all spring instead of shutting them off."

Davoli doesn't anticipate the situation becoming an emergency, but said the city won't know how the levels are looking until next year.

"If we have a really dry spring or a really dry summer again, we'll have to do some other things," Davoli said.

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Fostoria Review Times

Local News

Tuesday, December 08, 2009

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