Bloomington increases water conservation request as drought persists

The City of Bloomington is taking additional steps to try reducing water use due to the ongoing drought.

Bloomington city officials said residents have responded to calls to conserve water, but the city is now calling for a 10% cutback as water levels continue to drop at lakes Bloomington and Evergreen, its two water sources.

Lauren Warnecke

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WGLT

City Manager Jeff Jurgens signed a proclamation on Thursday that calls for water conservation by 10% across all sectors, including residential, agricultural, commercial, industrial, institutional, wholesale and for electric power generation.

Jurgens said during a Friday news conference the wording of the proclamation allows the city to issue these restrictions. For now, the city is merely asking residents to continue to conserve water.

Parts of Bloomington-Normal are under a severe drought, while much of western and northern McLean County is under a moderate drought. Southeastern McLean County is experiencing extreme drought.

Drought conditions have persisted after several months of below-normal precipitation that have kept levels low at the city’s two water sources, Evergreen Lake and Lake Bloomington. Water levels are now a combined 10 feet below adequate levels, two feet below where they were a month ago.

City officials requested 5% voluntary water conservation on Jan. 2 and said if drought conditions persist, the city could implement restrictions.

Jurgens added the city's water use dropped between 3-6% during the last month after the first conservation request.

"The community really stepped up and we were able to conserve some water," Jurgens said.

Many of the provisions set out in the proclamation are intended for the spring and summer, Mayor Dan Brady noted, adding the city hopes the drought conditions will improve by then.

"Some of the things that the resolution or proclamation speaks to are things that would be done and are extremely helpful if we weren't in the middle of winter, so some of that applies and some of it doesn't," Brady said. "We're being proactive instead of reactive."

The city's proclamation calls for residents to reduce any water-based recreational activities, such as swimming pools and water slides, until the severe drought ends. The use of sprinklers and water runoff in landscape designs are not to be used until the proclamation is lifted. Handheld sprayers are to be used on certain days — Tuesday and Saturday for odd-numbered businesses and Thursday and Sunday for even-numbered businesses.

City officials further recommend reducing water indoors by limiting dishwasher and clothes washer use to full loads, shortening showers and turning off the tap while brushing teeth. They discourage residents from keeping taps open during freezing temperatures, instead flushing faucets for a few seconds to keep pipes from freezing.

Aesthetic water use for commercial, industrial and institutional purposes also is restricted according to the proclamation, and it calls for domestic water use to be “reduced to the minimal levels necessary for health and safety.”

Restaurants are strongly encouraged to only provide drinking water upon request. Farm operators are advised to use conservation techniques and use alternate water sources when feasible. And residents who draw water from Lake Bloomington for irrigation are restricted from doing so for now.

The proclamation indicates the city may set up a 24-hour monitoring system to measure compliance.

The measure does not lay out any enforcement steps, but the city manager — in consultation with the water department director — said Bloomington will “continue to monitor the situation and issue additional measures as necessary.”