What could happen if partial water ban not followed in Altoona?
ALTOONA (WQOW) - Last week, the city of Altoona ordered a partial watering ban. News 18 delves into why the ban is needed, and what could happen if people do not comply. Altoona's two water towers can hold 500,000 gallons each for the city, but if residents don't take the water ban seriously, this finite resource could run out quickly. "If there were no restrictions in place, it could be a matter of a day, two days three days," said David Walter, the Altoona public works director and city engineer. That's how quickly Altoona could run out of clean water if everyone watered their lawn whenever they wanted during this dry weather. "In comparison, in the winter we would pump on average days about 770,000 gallons," Walter said. "Right now, for the 6th day in a row, we've been producing at max capacity over 1.6 million gallons daily." With Altoona's six wells pumping more water than the one million gallons the two water towers can hold, that could stress the water system. "Our wells are operating essentially 24 hours a day. A normal expected operation is the pumps would kick in for a certain amount of time, fill our towers to capacity, and keep up with the demand. The wells would run and then stop and rest, and the aquifer would have time to recharge," Walter said. "The elevation in our towers would drop to a certain point we could lose system pressure and potentially could have to shut the system down, issue a boil water advisory. That's not a good thing," Walter said. To help address the city's growing population and increased irrigation usage, officials are testing two new wells. The next step is to go to regulatory agencies for approval, but it will be sometime before one of those wells can be brought online. The ban will remain in effect until the city says otherwise, but they hope to end it sooner rather than later. The Village of Lake Hallie also implemented a temporary outdoor watering ban that started Monday, June 14. The ban includes all residents, businesses and parks.