(Casper, Wyo.) – In case you missed the irrigation ban that was issued on Friday afternoon has been lifted.
Crews at the Central Wyoming Regional Water System were able to repair the polymer system used to treat drinking water drawn from the river. The ban affected all customers served by the Central Wyoming Regional Water System.
This included customers of the City of Casper, Mile-Hi Improvement District, Salt Creek JPB (Midwest & Edgerton), Wardwell Water & Sewer District (Wardwell & Bar Nunn), Pioneer Water & Sewer District, Poison Spider Improvement District, 33 Mile Road Improvement & Service District, Sandy Lake Estate Improvement District, and Lakeview Improvement & Service District.
The Central Wyoming Regional Water System has two sources of water—groundwater and the North Platte River. An average of 40% of water produced at the plant is drawn from the North Platte River, while groundwater provides an average of 60% of the water.
Groundwater is pumped from the North Platte River alluvial aquifer via 30 wells. “The polymer system enables the water treatment plant to produce an additional 23 million gallons per day to meet the increased demand required by lawn watering,” stated David Hill, public utilities manager.
“Our water distribution system has a mechanism to store water; however, we saw a quick and serious draw down from the storage system on Friday that made us very concerned about our ability to replenish the drinking water in the tanks and have enough fire flow protection,” explained Hill. “After we notified the public, we saw the rate of the draw down drop dramatically, and we want to say thank you to the media for helping us get the word out and thank you to the citizens for complying with the irrigation ban and conserving water.”