FORT WORTH, Texas — Thousands of people in North Texas are counting on the water flow in the West Fork Trinity River.
It's part of the water service near downtown Fort Worth for the Tarrant Regional Water District. Part of Dustan Compton's job is to educate the public on how to conserve water, especially now that water-use is higher than normal.
Dustan Compton serves as the Conservation Manager for the Tarrant Regional Water District.
"Our water supplies come from surface water lakes and those are limited. If it's not raining, our supplies are going down," said Dustan Compton.
Fort Worth Water says already this year we've set monthly water-usage records in March, April, May and June. The record for usage in one day is a record set back in the summer of 2011 of 368.73 gallons. Now, the back-to-back 100-degree days in North Texas and little rain has raised concerns.
"But looking ahead this month, it just shows triple digit temps and no chances of rain. So, this might be a tough month," Dustan Compton said, "Conserving water is extremely important in Tarrant County and across all of DFW."
Compton believes Fort Worth's growth has increased water use. He encourages new residents to log onto their water company's website to learn more about restrictions. Especially since many communities have hotlines set up to report violations.
Fort Worth Water partners with several organizations that help educate citizens for free. There are seminars, webinars and Zoom presentations people can sign up for to learn about everything from irrigation operation to landscaping to plants that require minimum water.
Citizens can sign up for direct email or text about water use recommendations in their neighborhood at www.waterisawesome.com.
"For all the newcomers coming to this area, get to know where your water comes from and understand that this climate and soils are a little bit different than maybe where you originally are from," said Compton.
Fort Worth isn't alone when it comes to higher water use. In the City of Arlington, this year’s unusually hot and dry June sped up the increases typically seen for summer water usage.
During the start of June, Arlington was using about 56 million gallons of water a day. By the end of the month, that number jumped to an average of 86 million gallons a day. The city’s water usage on Thursday, June 30 was almost 89 million gallons, the highest water uses for a day in June since 2012.
The reservoirs the City of Arlington and other municipalities rely on in Tarrant County are in good shape for now. But customers are encouraged to be water-efficient and take advantage of the tools to help manage their own water use.
In Arlington, more than 75% of residential meters are read remotely. Thanks to technology, customers can set their own high use and high bill alerts. The alerts help customers learn early if their bill is on track to be higher than expected, so they can conserve more and avoid billing surprises.