NEWS RELEASE City of Wichita Falls Public Information Office (940) 761-7401 [email protected] July 16, 2014 Evaporation Barrier Could Save 4 Million Gallons of Water Per Day at Lake Arrowhead Wichita Falls, Texas- In the continuing effort to preserve the City’s remaining water supply the Wichita Falls City Council has approved a pilot project to help reduce evaporation on Lake Arrowhead. “During the hottest months of the year, evaporation losses are typically twice as much as the water used by the City. For example, today we are using about 12 million gallons per day,” said Russell Schreiber, Director of Public Works, “while almost 24 million gallons per day are lost to evaporation.” The project involves the use of a new product called WaterSavr which is approved by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and National Science Foundation (NSF) for use in water reservoirs. Both entities also considered the product to be safe for the environment. WaterSavr is a lime based product which works by coating the surface water with a thin film that traps water vapor which would have otherwise been lost to evaporation. “Our citizens have made heroic efforts in water conservation. This is another step in preserving our existing water supply using a method that has received regulatory approval,” said City Manager Darron Leiker. WaterSavr is a fine powder that is spread on a body of water at a rate of one pound per acre of water surface. Since it is biodegradable, it dissipates in 48 to 72 hours and must be reapplied. It is estimated that by using WaterSavr, millions of gallons of water a day that would be lost to evaporation could be preserved. “In addition to the fact that WaterSavr is biodegradable we also know that our current water treatment process will assure that it has no negative impact on water quality,” said Schreiber. “We continue to operate our water treatment plant using state-of-the-art technology, state certified operators and with a certified laboratory on site to continuously test water quality. “We have already successfully tested the product in our water treatment plans to make sure it does not interfere with the treatment process.” The test program is expected to run for 75 days and cost $375,000. Staff is working with the Texas Water Development Board (TWDB) on a monitoring program to document the effectiveness of the project. The TWDB considers this project to be a potential water management strategy and that deserves investigation. “Innovation and conservation are the two key elements of our plans to work through this drought,” said Schreiber. “This is another positive step in that process.
Posted on: Wed, 16 Jul 2014 15:21:09 +0000
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