Water usage forces new restrictions

The City of Thompson Falls has imposed more stringent water use restrictions. These efforts, according to Mayor Mark Sheets, are to ensure there is enough water stored and available to fight any fires that may reach town.

Thursday and Friday, ash from the Thorne Creek fire burning north of town rained on to properties throughout the city. That prompted residents to water even more, and the city had to send out an alert on Saturday reminding residents of the water restrictions. According to the mayor, residents turned on their sprinklers and left them on all night. “We were doing fine up until that point. Now the water storage is down to the point where it makes recovery difficult,” said Sheets.

According to City Works Manager Neil Harnett, around 11 p.m. Friday night he checked the storage tank level and it was at 10.5 feet. He said that the water level normally rests at around 14 feet. He started getting worried so he turned on the small well. By 2 a.m., the water level had dropped almost six feet. “It was definitely scary for us for a while,” said Harnett. “I think everybody in the upper zone turned on their sprinklers and let them run all night.”

The new restrictions limit residents to watering only during the hours of 5-9 a.m. and 8 p.m. to midnight. The restrictions also limit houses with even number addresses to water on even days, and odd number houses to water on odd days. Sheets explained that residents can find other ways to save and use less water. Some examples he gave were saving dish water in pots and pans after washing dishes and using it to water plants and grass, taking shorter showers and reusing bath water.

Sheets explained that the city taps into a spring in the Ashley Creek drainage for much of its water, along with two wells. The mayor is unsure if the Thorne Creek fire will have a long-term effect on the city’s water supply. According to him, the spring is out of the influence of anything on the surface, to his knowledge, however, the flow has been decreasing steadily over the last few years. “We’ve had to rely more and more on the wells,” said Sheets, “and the number of users has been going up.” Sheets and other city officials urge residents to be frugal with water usage. Should the fire reach Thompson Falls, the city water supply is the main defense.

The city has been working to increase the system’s efficiency, as well as to improve storage capacity, but Sheets said it is a very slow and expensive process. They have applied for an American Rescue Plan Act grant to help update the water storage. Unfortunately, Sheets said there are many other towns and cities applying for the same grant who are facing similar problems. The mayor explained that the path of that funding will not be known until October at the earliest.

As for those looking for more information about what to do regarding the Thorne Creek fire, there is an American Red Cross shelter at the Thompson Falls Community Center. Information from the shelter is available 24 hours a day by calling 827-9268. According to Sheets, there is also a fire information trailer in Ainsworth Park, where scheduled public fire meetings are taking place. The trailer is manned most of the time, and the workers have updated information on the fire.