Residents of five counties in southwest Iowa will have to continue boiling and conserving water this week as work continues to get their water system back up.
Avoca Rural Water Plant general manager Tom Kallman, says the ongoing drought caused the problem that led to the system running out of water last week. “We’ve had so many years of below-average rainfall the watershed in the West Nishnabotna River has gone down so far that I used to be able to pull the water right out of the best part of the well — which is right where the gravel is — and we’re now having to lower the wells the pumps down further into the wells past the gravel into the silt and clay stuff,” Kallman says.
He says that made it tougher to keep up with the water needs. “I don’t get as much water out of the well, and it takes more time to filter it properly so that it reads meets state standards for purity,” he says. The Rural Water System supplies in Shelby, Audubon, Cass, Harrison, and northern Pottawattamie County with water.
Kallman says water usage became a concern right away at the start of the year. “We set a record January this year in the 50-year history of our company. We had our probably our third highest use in February — and that’s when I knew we were going to have some issues — so I asked for voluntary conservation in March,” Kallman says.
He says April wasn’t another record month, but he didn’t get as much conservation of water he hoped to see. That eventually led to all the water coming out of the seven towers last week before they could be refilled, and a negative pressure in the water system. Kallman has been working to repressurize the system and pass the tests required by the state before the system is back again. He says best the best case scenario would have the system back up by Friday.