Residents of the northwest Iowa town of Hull are being told to conserve water to ensure they have enough for vital services. City administrator Les Van Roekel says they declared a water emergency one week ago.
He says Hull purchases all of its water from Rock Valley Rural Water and from the city of Sioux Center. “We have a contract with both of those entities and at the beginning of last week we were exceeding our contract amounts, which was decreasing the level of our tower,” Van Roekel explains.
He says dry conditions led to more usage, and they decided to ask residents to help keep things from getting worse. “We wanted to get ahead of the restriction and we declared that early in hopes that..it doesn’t affect the residential cleaning, cooking type things as well as no affect on the commercial and industrial businesses from an operations standpoint,” Van Roekel explains.
Residents are prohibited from outdoor watering and irrigating of lawns and gardens. No water may be used to fill private swimming pools or any other recreational use. No water may be used for nonessential use. Car washing is prohibited except in commercial establishments that provide the service.
Van Roekel hopes the city doesn’t have to impose additional water restrictions on essential water usage.
By Dennis Morrice, KLEM, Le Mars