Jasper water supply up but still resticted

During the emergency Common Council meeting held on Monday in Jasper, Water Utility Manager Mike Oeding told the council the watering ban was working.

Mayor Terry Seitz commended the citizens of Jasper and the volunteers that helped on Friday. He told the council the city was in much better shape due to the water ban.

Oeding said on Saturday they began to notice the water behind the dam on the Patoka River was rising. The utility still had to use an auxillary pump it had to leased to keep up with the demand from the city. By Sunday the water was high enough the intakes could begin feeding  water to the Plant and the pump was no longer needed.

With the increased intake the department was able to replenish the clearwell —the tank that stores the clean water to send to the towers— and keep up with demand.

Jasper asked the Department of Natural Resources to reduce the release from Patoka Lake from 38 cfs (cubic feet per second) to 30 cfs. On Tuesday morning DNR notified the city it would be cutting back to the new discharge rate.

“Right now there is water coming over the dam in Dubois,” Oeding said at the meeting. “We will continue to monitor there and if it stops coming over the dam we will take action.”

Oeding asked the council to lift the ban on lawn, garden and landscape watering but requested some stipulations be put in place to allow the water supply to keep up with demand. Oeding requested that all residents with odd addresses be allowed to water on odd days of the month and all even addresses water on even days. He also asked the watering only occur from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m.

If a resident is an even numbered address (610 Main Street) they can water their yards and garden on even days of the month (those divisible by 2) between the hours of 6 a.m. and 6 p.m. All odd numbers addresses (611 Main Street) water on odd days of the month.

Residents and businesses are still restricted from washing cars and outside surfaces (sidewalks, driveways, exterior walls of homes), unless their business deals with those items specifically (car washes and car dealerships).

The fountain at Central Green and the City Mill is recirculated water and is no longer restricted. The fountain will be operating until 6 p.m. each day. Golf courses will also be allowed to water.

Jasper pulls its water from a reservoir created by the dam on Third Ave. The water reservoir backs up about a mile upstream to create the reservoir. When the water on the Patoka went down recently, the lower level made it difficult for the water plant to pull water from the reservoir. This created the emergency situation last week.

The ban is still in effect and the council will have to meet in emergency session to change the order.