City of Dumas quadrupling number of wellfields available to pump water from
Published: Fri, 07/29/22
City of Dumas quadrupling number of wellfields available to pump water from
DUMAS, Texas (KVII) — The city of Dumas is quadrupling the number of wellfields it can pump water from. In this week’s Panhandle Runs on Water, ABC 7 News looks at how the city is making some changes.
The estimated $10 million project will address future needs while improving the quality of water right now.
City of Dumas quadrupling number of wellfields available to pump water from (KVII)“In the summer months we are using as much water as we are producing,” said Ray Resendez, city manager.
The capacity of water the city of Dumas can provide per day is 3.7 million gallons. During the peak demand period for water, the city is averaging 3.5 million gallons of consumption a day.
Mayor Bob Brinkman tells ABC 7 News that the city has no choice but to invest in increasing additional access to water by going from two to eight wells.
“80 plus % of our water comes down one 30-inch pipe out of our Hartley wellfield which puts our city at a lot of risk,” said Mayor Brinkmann. “We don’t have enough in the tanks to take care of us.”
Construction projects for a new school campus along with housing projects for the future mean water demand will only increase
“As Dumas grows were in the process of a number of housing additions going in and apartment complexes and so with that growth some of our infrastructure is undersized so we needed to upgrade and grow,” said Brinkmann.
“With the new developments coming in our sewer system can’t handle the more waste that we're bringing in so we’ve also included a few lift stations to help us move that solid waste,” said Resendez.
Resendez tells ABC 7 News that the city recently enacted its Drought Contingency Plan to help reduce demand for water for the remainder of the summer – this part of the plan is voluntary.
“The city itself we’ve reduced some of our parks you can kind of tell,” said Resendez. “We’ve asked the ISD to do the same so everybody is kind of doing their part so we're asking people not to water during the heat of the day.”
As for making a change as to where the city of Dumas gets its water, early indications are it will take between six months to a year and a half. The city is using COs (Certificates of Obligation) to pay for the project.