Osceola votes to enter water conservation ordinance
One southern Iowa community says they are running low on their water supply.
Officials in Osceola say their main water source, West Lake near the Lakeside Casino, has dropped more than two feet over the last year, and is currently four and a half feet below the overflow.
"The supply is just diminishing as it goes down," said Brandon Patterson, the Osceola Water superintendent.
Patterson says it's due in part to the drought, but also because the community is growing.
He says they can safely pull about 900,000 gallons of water a day from the lake, but are using about 1.4 million gallons daily.
"It's definitely a concern and I watch every time we get rain, and we often see it go above or below us," Patterson said.
On Thursday night, the Osceola water works board voted to implement section two of the city's water conservation ordinance.
In the ordinance, outdoor watering and irrigation are prohibited with limited exceptions. Car washing is also prohibited.
You can view a complete list of the restrictions here.
Watch: Osceola’s water supply is running low
Officials are also looking for a long-term fix beyond the ordinance.
City and county officials are working on a plan for an 800-acre reservoir, more than double the size of West Lake, to be built six miles northwest of Osceola.
They are estimating the project's cost at about $95 million and are working with the Natural Resource Conservation to create a watershed plan to secure federal funding.
"The biggest issue overall is going to be cost, inflation as it has been, that's happened with all of our projects, and we're certainly not alone as a community in that," Osceola City Administrator Ty Wheeler said.