HUNTSVILLE — To help alleviate stress on the water system, residents of Huntsville’s Green Mountain have been asked to conserve water.
Huntsville City Councilwoman Dr. Jennie Robinson hosted a meeting last week with Green Mountain residents and Huntsville Utilities on water usage and water conservation. About 100 residents showed up for Huntsville Utilities’ presentation.
According to Huntsville Utilities’ statistics, early June water consumption on Green Mountain was considerably higher than the same timeframe in previous years.
Water pumped in 2020-2022 averaged 10-16 hours of pumping time, compared to pumping on a near 24-hour basis in June.
The increase was so prevalent, Huntsville Utilities looked for leaks in the main waterlines and decreased irrigation activities to try and catch any causes for the sudden increase.
The utility’s energy audit team is also following-up with high volume residences to help find workable, long-term solutions.
In the meantime, Huntsville Utilities invoked City Ordinance 26-671 requesting Green Mountain residents voluntarily conserve water as the first step in alleviating stress on the current system.
Three more increasingly more drastic warning stages follow so the utility is hoping self-conservation will be enough to get the problem under control.
While admitting the area’s growing population is a factor, Huntsville Utilities finalized construction plans for the first phase of a water pipeline in December.
It is expected to be complete by May 2025, at which time the plan calls for the construction of a water tank on Green Mountain.
The utilities compared water usage to other areas with similar pumping systems.
In June, the maximum pump time for the system known as Tessie was 5.3 hours. The Ledges maximum pump time was 14.7 hours.
Compare that to Green Mountain’s maximum pump time of 22.4 hours in June, and it is well above the 18-hour threshold for needing upgrades, the utility said.
The utilities’ further showed that based on the most recent residential bills in June, the average consumption was around 5,200 gallons per month annually.
Green Mountain’s consumption with only 588 total residents averaged 14,000 gallons. Furthermore, June consumption was the highest it has been in the past 12 months.
By pumping so close to 24 hours per day, Huntsville Utilities representatives expressed concerns about their ability to pump enough water to meet demands on Green Mountain during more intense summer weather.
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