Wichita Falls pumps treated wastewater into Lake Arrowhead to stay ahead of drought

As North Texas enters the worst dry spell since the Great Drought of 2010-2015, Wichita Falls’ Indirect Potable Reuse (IPR) water equipment is churning away to keep Lake Arrowhead from reaching the dangerously low levels of seven years ago.

Figures from the City of Wichita Falls show by March of 2022, the city had discharged 7.1 billion gallons of treated wastewater back into Lake Arrowhead since the system was put into operation in January 2018.

A statement from the city said it has pumped treated wastewater back into the primary reservoir every day except for times when the lake was within six inches of the spillway height, which means essentially full.

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The city also did not pump from February to June 2021 while the pump motors were repaired because of damage sustained during Winter Storm Uri.

The city expects to pump 2.7 billion gallons of treated wastewater into Lake Arrowhead in 2022, bringing the overall total to 9.1 billion gallons.

Wichita Falls gained worldwide attention by becoming the first city of its size to specially treat and recycle wastewater, drawing headlines that joked about “potty water.” The drought had reduced reservoirs to below 20 percent of capacity.

The city first ran a temporary 12-mile pipeline across town as an emergency measure to get the wastewater back into the lake and later installed the IPR system, which disinfects the wastewater and mixes it with clean water.

Even with the treated wastewater going back to the lake, the city still bans most lawn watering between 10a.m. and 7 p.m. and is prepared to take more stringent steps if lake levels drop substantially.

Those measures begin kicking in when the combined levels of lakes Arrowhead and Kickapoo reach 65 percent.

As of Friday, Lake Arrowhead was at 82.9 percent of capacity and Lake Kickapoo was at 71.8 percent. A third lake the city can use, Lake Kemp, was 78.8 percent full.