By Kevin Jefferies
Commerce – The Commerce City Council voted to move into Phase 2 of the city's drought contingency plan in regular session last night. Commerce has been under Phase 1 for about a year now, which asked citizens to voluntarily engage in water conservation. Now, mandatory restrictions on water usage are in place.
Commerce City Manager Bill Shipp said the move shouldn't come as a surprise.
SHIPP: I think that there's been a lot of publicity about the water issues in the whole North Central Texas region. So, I think that most of our citizens are aware of how severe these problems are; therefore, I think they'll cooperate, and I think they'll help us bring that demand down.
Commerce recently got a new water pump fully functional in Lake Tawakoni, but it has a lower capacity than the largest pump currently in use. Without rain, current lake levels will likely fall low enough by the end of August that only the new pump will be able to supply water for the city.
SHIPP: If you can't keep up with the water levels in the water tower...you can't keep your pressure up...and then you have safety issues. If you have a fire, what can you pump? Those sort of things.
The mandatory water restrictions primarily restrict outdoor watering to between the hours of 8pm and 10am. More information can be obtained through Commerce City Hall.