KINGWOOD — Preston County Public Service District No. 1 is searching for other water sources as lack of rain lowers the water it has available.
PSD 1 issued a mandatory conservation order Thursday, restricting customers from using water for gardens or sprinklers.
The lack of rainfall comes as PSD 1 continues to deal with a government mandated project to redo its primary water source and treatment problems with its temporary source, known as Impoundment 6 or the Fairfax Pond.
The water level at Impoundment 6 is down almost two feet, PSD 1 board member Mike Adams said Friday.
A coffer dam was built as part of the dam work, and by running a line to that, with a pump provided by contractors, PSD 1 was able to pump from there recently. But the district, “ended up pumping it dry in seven hours.” Adams said.
So the district switched back to Impoundment 6. “We just have to be very careful with what we have,” Adams said. Water from 6 has also proved more difficult to treat than the district expected, leading to complaints of foul smelling, tasting and discolored water from users.
The district is working to get approval to use ponds known as the Blue Hole or Green Hole. Tributaries to Impoundment 6, they are located behind West Preston School, in Arthurdale.
They are fed by aquifers. The district doesn’t have pumps in those ponds now.
The $7.8 million rehab of the dam at Impoundment 1, on the J.W. Ruby Research Farm, is the district’s primary water source. the project is behind schedule. The project is not under the district’s control.
The contractor plans to begin pouring concrete at the dam Sept. 30, weather permitting, Adams said. It is expected to take 71 days to pour all the concrete from the bottom of the dam to the top.
“This is a lot more in detail and depth than what anyone could imagine,” Adams said. “We’re going to have some parts of that [water behind the] dam that’s going to be 28 feet deep, when they’re done. And that’s incredible.”
The project on the dam, built in 1969, is in part because it silted in over the years, limiting the water supply it held. It was expected to take seven days to remove the water when construction began and actually only took 12 hours.
So, “We were in the same shape at Impoundment 1 that we were at Impoundment 6, but we didn’t even know it,” Adams said.
Ground was broken on the dam rehab in August 2017. This is only the second dam the USDA has rehabbed, “and this is one for the record books,” Adams said. “Because if it could go wrong, it has gone wrong.”
PSD 1 serves about 1,600 customers. The dam also provides flood protection to many more.
AccuWeather meteorologist Paul Walker said from June 1-Sept. 27, a total of 15.13 inches of rain fell in Kingwood and 20.25 in Terra Alta. Since Aug. 27, Kingwood has seen only 1.45 inches and Terra Alta, 2.46 inches.
“It’s a little bit drier in the past month that what normal is,” Walker said. “Wet summer but now it’s turned dry.”
The largest water utility in Preston County, Kingwood Water Works, said it is not implementing conservation. Its water source is the Cheat River. Kingwood provides water for Kingwood, Albright, Public Service District No. 2, Camp Dawson and the Whetsell Settlement.
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