City of Salem Issues Stage-Two Water Alert

‏Citzens are asked to voluntarily reduce water consumption.

Courtesy: environmenteast.org

(SALEM, Ore.) - City of Salem Public Works Director Peter Fernandez has issued a Stage-Two alert and curtailment actions for the municipal water system.

A Stage-two alert means that a water shortage exists and that customers are asked to voluntarily restrict all lawn watering and other non-essential uses of water as specified below:

• No watering or irrigating of lawns, grass or turf unless it is:
  • New lawn, grass or turf planted after March 1st
  • Golf course tees and greens
• No parks irrigation except for sensitive areas
• No decorative fountains-due to our current hot weather, the City's splash-pads will remain open between noon and 6:00 p.m. daily.
• No hydrant flushing
• No athletic field watering
• No home car washing

While citizens are being asked to voluntarily reduce personal water use wherever possible, this request does not include vegetable gardens or ornamental plants.

Multiple conditions contributed to this alert. Last week the City's normal water production was reduced by algae in the North Santiam River. While the City's sand filters are designed to completely remove algae, the capacity of the City's water treatment facility at Geren Island was reduced. The City temporarily reduced its internal consumption and the intertie between Salem and the City of Keizer was activated to supplement Salem's supply.

A second condition developed over the weekend when the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers discovered a problem with two of the three gates at Big Cliff Reservoir, four miles downstream of Detroit Lake. Over the next couple of days, the Corps will be reducing the flow in the North Santiam River which supplies water to the Geren Island Treatment plant. It is anticipated that repairs will take several days.

"We really need all citizens to respond to these conditions" says Fernandez, "we are hoping that voluntarily reductions will get us through these issues. Whatever we conserve now helps not having mandatory reductions later this week.

Salem Revised Code 72.250 Water Curtailment Authority authorizes the Public Works Director to issue the order for a State-two alert whenever a water shortage exists.