Shenandoah maintains stage 4 water conservation

(Shenandoah) — Recent rains and a new well have improved Shenandoah’s water levels.

But, city officials says current water restrictions remain in place because of the continuing drought. Back in October, the Shenandoah City Council resumed stage four water conservation, prohibiting the majority of outdoor watering—except for businesses selling or growing plants—and restricting the filling of swimming pools. Speaking on KMA’s “Morning Line” program earlier this week, Shenandoah Mayor Roger McQueen says the city’s water wells benefited from recent precipitation.

“The wells have come up a little bit,” said McQueen. “I’m never going to say they’re great yet, because they’re far from it. But, we have seen a 3-to-4 inch increase in our wells. One of the new ones—number 27—is up and running. Number 28, we’re still having transmission problems. That doesn’t have anything to do with the well, it’s for the information part of the well, so the guys know where it’s at, and so forth. Hopefully, we’ll get that thing finished pretty quick so that we’ll have that on line.”

McQueen hopes the wet weather trend here and north of the region continues.

“If it stays like this, we can pick up some rains,” he said. “I think this month, already, we’re close to 2 1/2 inches of rainfall. If we can do that, and stay cooler, we can start seeing some increases. It does help when it rains up north, too, because the river comes up and it does recharge the soil. It’s not that we draw anything out of the river, but it does help the subsoil.”

However, the mayor says it’s still too early to end stage 4 conservation measures.

“We’re going to have to see a substantial raise in the wells to make sure we don’t put ourselves in harm’s way,” said McQueen, “with the recent stories coming out about Avoca, Auburn and Peru, and places like that. We started water conservation two years ago, and I think that’s what has kept us to the point where we’ve had water. We’ve been able to provide water for the citizens for bathing, and drinking and everything.”

In other water-related fronts, city officials plan to open the Wilson Aquatic Center Monday at 1 p.m. More information is expected to be released on the pool’s Facebook page.