Water: worth it's weight in uh, gold?

With gold prices what they are, not quite.  However, local farmers can only cringe when doing their daily check of crops and pastures. They, along with gardeners and anyone with a front yard has to wonder how bad things are going to get.


The chart below shows us a little of what the 'dog days of August' have in store- pretty typical, hot and dry conditions are on tap. Problem is, July was more like a typical August; and a drive around the county paints a dismal picture, especially for corn, pastures and hay. 

Black-chance of precipitation
Grey-very slight chance of precipitation
Yellow-no precipitation

And if that isn't bad enough the drought is somewhat taxing for those producing drinking (treated) water. Namely the local water plants in Adrian, Amsterdam, Butler and Rich Hill- some of which also supply water to rural districts as well, are busy keeping up with demand. Bates County Live spoke with some of them to get a feel of how things are going:


Amsterdam- According to plant operator Les Nieder, "We're in pretty good shape right now. Our raw water comes out of the Marais des Cygnes and the river level is actually up about four inches- so right now there's no problem with supply." He went on to say that the Amsterdam water plant is only running about 10-12 hours per day, meaning they are easily keeping up with the increased demand.


Butler- Raw water comes from two sources- the Marais des Cygnes River and the Butler City Lake. As mentioned above, the river level being up slightly is a big help in regards to having enough water available to meet demand. We spoke to Manager Trent Diehl-"The  City Lake level is low, but we are pumping from the river, which is a big help. Right now the plant is running 16-18 hours a day and it's doing a pretty good job keeping up" he said. However, Diehl went on to say that water usage for the new Walmart construction is quite heavy, which at times is somewhat of a burden on top of the already high demand.


Adrian- Currently raw water is pumped from the New Reservoir, which is filled from the Grand River. While the lake level is down a little, the river level is down quite a bit. The Adrian plant also supplies water to District 5 and right now the system is running at full tilt- run time at the plant is right at 24 hours a day. Word is the plant is "holding its own" providing there is no major increase in demand. Good news for Adrian is that an expansion project is in the works which will greatly increase it's overall capacity. 


Drexel- Recent water system improvements enabled the city to purchase water from one of the largest water plants in western Missouri, the Tri-County Water Authority located in Independence Mo. Plant manager John Overstreet told us that while demand is indeed up, the plant is not running anywhere near full capacity. Raw water for the Tri-County comes from wells located in the bottoms adjacent to the Missouri River. The Tri-County connection is good news for Drexel- compared to the old system of taking water from the city lake, which simply was not able to meet quality or demand needs.


Rich Hill- No one was available to comment at the time of this writing. We could probably assume the Rich Hill plant is in the same position as the others, keeping a close eye on their resources.


So, for everyone concerned, it seems there is an adequate supply of treated water available in the county. We did get an additional comment from one of our plant operators- with super dry conditions, a potential problem would be a large fire or the occasional water main break- often caused by dry, shifting earth resulting in water losses and boil orders- basically adding insult to injury in times like these.


Everyone we spoke to urged water conservation at every level.


Let's keep our fingers crossed and hope we can get anything close to normal rainfall in August and better yet, 'normal' conditions next year.