Reservoir level reaches record low

For about 12 years, the lowest pool level recorded at Banner Creek Reservoir was 63 inches — five feet, three inches — below normal.

That record was broken in mid-March, when the reservoir saw its level drop to 64 inches below normal, and drizzly rain received in recent days isn’t expected to help the situation much.

That’s according to Dennis Ashcraft, who oversees operations at the Public Wholesale Water Supply District 18 water treatment plant, which treats water from Banner Creek Reservoir and sells it to customers in the city of Holton and Jackson County Rural Water District 3.

“Actually, that happened on about March 18,” Ashcraft said of the reservoir’s new record. “It’s maintained that level ever since then.”

The “old record,” it was reported, was noted in 2012, and after that, it took about two years for the reservoir to refill, as reservoir director Kurt Zibell told The Holton Recorder last September, when the pool level dropped to four feet below normal.

That prompted PWWSD 18 officials to issue a Stage II water warning, in which the City of Holton and RWD 3 are asked to enact voluntary water conservation measures. RWD 3 subsequently enacted Stage I of its own water conservation plan, in which customers were asked, but not ordered, to cut back on water use.

The City of Holton, on the other hand, has its own water wells to draw from and a water treatment plant to prepare that water for use. Ashcraft, who also serves as Holton’s water and sewer superintendent, said the city’s wells are maintaining good levels so far.

“The levels out at the city’s wells would have to drop five feet before the city goes into a water conservation plan,” Ashcraft said. “But they haven’t done that. They’re still maintaining, they’re still producing and doing fine.”

If the pool level at Banner gets down eight more inches to 72 inches — six feet — below normal, he said, that will change. That will trigger a Stage III water warning, prompting PWWSD 18 officials to approach Holton and RWD 3 officials for more restrictions on water use.

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