August is Drinking Water Quality Month
Beaufort Jasper is the main water and wastewater utility provider in our two-county service area. We serve about 67,000 water customers and almost 50,000 wastewater customers in a 750 square mile territory.
National Water Quality Month reminds us all to take a moment to consider how important safe reliable water is not just to humans but to all living things in our ecosystems. We need to appreciate and protect our water and I wanted to share a couple of facts we should all keep in mind not just month but every day.
Liquid water is what makes earth so unique and virtually everything on our planet relies on it. In the US, we use water for everything from drinking to recreation without thinking twice about it, but what most Americans don’t realize is that not all water is created equal and having immediate access to clean water is a privilege, not a right. Ironically, even though water makes up over 70% of Earth’s surface area, the total amount of freshwater found on Earth only makes up around 3% of the water supply, 1% of which is easily accessible. This 1% accounts for all of our lakes, rivers, groundwater, aquifers, and streams. Knowing where our water comes from makes it easier to appreciate the quality of our local waterways, and can motivate people to keep these water sources as clean as possible.
Locally, the Authority is having a hard time meeting the demand for treated water, especially in the early morning hours. Everyone wakes up and starts their morning routine. People want to water their lawns at the same time. In fact, we’ve found that during dry periods, water usage is at least 50% higher during the morning hours than if it has recently rained. Some people are using more than 600 gallons per hour just to water their lawns. On those days, our treatment plants produce water as fast as they can and we watch as we watch our storage towers drain like a bathtub. We’ve had some close calls.
The first symptoms are:
• widespread discolored water issues, then
• people start to notice pressure drops
In an extreme case we:
• could need to issue boil water advisories
• or have service interruptions for homes, businesses or even firefighting
Managing irrigation schedules is the key. If people will just shift WHEN they water, it will buy us time to build more treatment capacity and stabilize flows.
Here is what we’re asking:
Adjust irrigation controls to water no more than three days per week.
• Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday for odd-numbered addresses
• Wednesday, Friday and Sunday for even-numbered addresses
Avoid irrigating on Mondays and between the hours of 3 AM and 9 AM when system demand is the most extreme
Apply Irrigation Management stickers to control panels and mark the appropriate box that corresponds with the address.
Jeff La Rue
Beaufort Jasper Water and Sewer Authority BJWSA
843-987-9200
http://www.BJWSA.org
Info@BJWSA.org
WHHI Daily News Anchor: Bob Stevens & Robyn Zimmerman
July 2024
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