Facts about Boone's Water Situation

Boone, like most of the state is currently experiencing a drought situation. This temporary drought is not the basis for the town's water allocation policies, and is not addressed in the issues and solutions raised in the following information.

• The town uses surface waters. It does not use a reservoir or well water.
   
• Unused water flows down the rivers to other communities.
   
• The Town of Boone has a permit from the state to draw 3 million gallons of water a day from two local rivers.
   
• When we reach 2.7 millions gallons a day the state requires a moratorium on new hook ups.
   
• Usage is measured by the highest five-day average throughout the year. The highest average typically occurs in the fall during ASU home football weekends when the hotels are full, the students are here, and the restaurants are busy.
   
• The town treats its own waste water and ASU's waste water.
   
• The town puts more water back into the rivers than it takes out. The water is as clean or cleaner than when it was taken out.
   
• The highest five-day average to date is 2.25 million gallons, leaving 450,000 gallons per day available for use by the residents and business of Boone.
  

Water Shortage on paper

The town council passed ordinance 05-01 which has created a water crisis on paper. The town is only allowing 25,000 gallons of water to be allocated per year.

The council decided to hold back 270 gallons for every undeveloped lot in the Town of Boone. There are 576 undeveloped lots resulting in 155,520 gallons per day being held back even though no one has asked for it. Additionally they are holding back water for each recently approved subdivision as if a building permit for every lot has been requested. (As an example, the town is holding back over 30,000 gallons for the Council Oaks Subdivision even though only a few building permits have been granted.)

The town council holds water "hearings" with evidence and testimony under oath to give out water allocations over 500 gallons. The town council is making decisions about whose home or business or development is more deserving than another home or business or development.

The town is turning people down for water under the argument that we don't want to run out of water. As far as that citizen, businessman or property owner asking for water is concerned, we have already run out of water while hundreds of thousands of gallons flow down the river.

Solutions...

1. The town needs to sell as much water as possible to raise money for a new source of water. For every 100,000 gallons of water a day that are sold, $306,600 is collected in water and sewer fees that can used to finance water improvements and keep your water bill down.
   
2. We should be working with ASU to share water while a new source is acquired. The University has repeatedly offered to share water through an interconnect.
   
3. Boone could be using some of it's approximately 4 million gallons of water storage capacity to reduce the amount of water being drawn from the rivers on big football weekends. This alone would reduce the town's highest average usage well below the current 2.25 million gallons.
   
4. ASU has offered to furnish water to several properties owned by the university around town. This alone would reduce Boone's usage by over 15 million gallons of water per year, thus allowing the addition of more single-family homes, multi-family projects, affordable housing projects, and businesses.

Conclusion

The only reasonable conclusion is that water is being improperly used to control development and circumvent the UDO and proper zoning decisions while costing the taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars in lost water & sewer revenue.

Deck Hill Tank..referenced in the radio spot

The water faucet mentioned in the radio spot is a pipe coming from the spring that feeds the old water tank on Deck Hill. Water flows out of this pipe at the rate of 3 gallons per minute. Over the course of a year approximately 1,500,000 gallons of water flows into the ditch running down Deck Hill road. The town has determined that it is not cost effective to pipe the water to the Water Treatment Plant less than a 1/4 mile down the road. Yet we are being asked to conserve "every drop" by Loretta Clawson, Bunk Spann and Lynne Mason.

Update: In an email response dated September 5th, Boone Public Utilities Director Rick Miller responded to a question about the water flowing out of the 2" pipe at the Deck Hill water tank, stating, "Town personnel were sent to investigate the situation at the Deck Hill Water Tank after hearing a paid advertisement on the radio. A water sample was taken from an existing natural spring overflow at the site and indicated a small amount of chlorine and fluoride in the water. This denotes a leak from the Town water system is finding its way into the spring water."

Rick Miller recently stated at a "Lunch and Learn" meeting held by the Chamber of Commerce, that the town was planning to send divers into the tank to search for the leak.