Study looks at Greenbelt’s reliability

By Roger Estlack, Clarendon Enterprise

Greenbelt Lake is not likely to run dry, but steps need to be taken now to insure the lake’s customers have an adequate water supply in the future.

That’s the result of a study presented to the Greenbelt Water Authority Board last week by engineers from the Ft. Worth firm of Freese & Nichols, who spent much of the summer investigating the reliability of the Greenbelt reservoir.

“They started in June, and they assessed the reservoir and looked at other water sources,” Greenbelt General Manager Bobbie Kidd told the Enterprise.

A Draft Assessment of Potential Water Supplies presented to the Greenbelt board found that “the reservoir will not go dry at current demand levels if the historic hydrology (inflow) is representative of future hydrology.”

Kidd said springs which feed Greenbelt Lake were found to be producing about 3,850 acre-feet of water per year, but he also says evaporation has to be taken into account. And it is uncertain what effect the current drought will have on the local streams.

“They think we’re at the bottom of a five-year cycle,” Kidd said. The engineers’ report notes that: “In the historical records there has never been a low-flow period that lasted as long as five years.”

The engineers found that depletion of the reservoir has slowed in the last several weeks, which may indicate that the spring flow is returning. However, if the springs were to stop running and the drought was to continue, the report says Greenbelt Lake “has one to two years’ supply remaining.”

“The long term solution is groundwater,” Kidd said.

To that end, the water authority is already in the process of refinancing existing bonds in preparation of pursuing development of potential groundwater supplies, investigating the permitting process as well as looking at the acquisition of water rights and rights of way.

“We’re still concerned and worried,” Kidd said. “Fortunately, we have some options, and we’re going to develop one of them for sure.”

Freese & Nichols recommends Greenbelt develop a source that could “provide up to 2,000 acre-feet per year during drought” and might not be needed in all years.

Greenbelt says water customers need to be aware that the drought restrictions are still in place and likely will be for quite some time – at least until groundwater is added to the system or rain raises the elevation of the lake.

“Nothing is going to change until we have water in the pipeline or the lake reverses the triggers that set off the restrictions,” Kidd said.