Fort Worth set a record this week for the most water use in a single day with 358 million gallons on Monday.
The record beats the previous high by roughly 15 million gallons, when 343.3 million gallons were used on Aug. 18, 2006.
Setting a record can be a good thing, like when trying to set the a new record for consecutive days of triple-digit heat, but not when it comes to water consumption. The city warns that such use could expedite the need to implement water restrictions -- especially after the month of June where customers used a record 8 billion gallons.
The city buys water from the Tarrant Regional Water District, along with dozens of other cities and communities in North Texas. The TRWD has said they expect to implement Stage 1 water restrictions by Sept. 1, but could trigger the drought plan restriction earlier if use remains high without significant rainfall.
Drought plans call for Stage 1 restrictions to be implemented when the capacity of those lakes drops to 75 percent. The TRWD estimates reservoirs are at 80 percent.
The TRWD provides water to 1.75 million people in 71 North Texas cities including Fort Worth, Arlington, Mansfield, Southlake, Keller and North Richland Hills. The TRWD pulls water from four owned and operated reservoirs (Lake Bridgeport, Eagle Mountain Lake, Cedar Creek and the Richland-Chambers Reservoir) and two lakes used for terminal storage (Lake Arlington and Lake Benbrook).
Tips for saving water and using it efficiently can be found at www.savefortworthwater.org.
