Below is the latest newsletter from the Morse Waterways Association regarding Morse Lake Water Levels…
Morse Waterways Association Newsletter 7/3/12
The “Skinny”on Water Levels
Morse Reservoir, not Morse Lake. The dam valves were opened less than 30 days ago and the water levels on Morse are over 3 feet below the dam
level of 810 ft. elevation. As most of you know the reservoir supports Citizens 2 water plants along the White River. When the dam valves were first opened in early June, approximately 50 million gallons of water were released each day from the reservoir. Last week, that figure increased to 85 million gallons of water per day. The 2 water plants supported by Morse generate around 140 million gallons of water per day for Citizens water customers. Last week Citizens reached an all time high water usage of 233 million gallons of water in one day. Citizens estimates that 40% of that water usage was from irrigation (watering lawns).
By contrast, Geist Reservoir supports 1 water plant for Citizens on Fall Creek which supplies approximately 40 million gallons of water per day to Citizens customers. This is why more water is released from Morse than from Geist. Currently, Citizens is releasing approximately 42 million gallons per day from Geist.
The rain storms last Friday and Saturday, helped to slow the drawdown of Morse, but more importantly assisted in increasing the water flow within the White River upstream. The storms also reduced the amount of watering of lawns. For these reasons, the amount of water which Citizens required from Morse to support the 2 plants was reduced which resulted in the amount of water drawn from Morse each day. As of Monday July 2nd, 60 million gallons of water are being released daily from Morse compared to the high of 85 million gallons last week. If no additional rain comes our way soon and Citizens water demand goes back up, then the dam valves will be opened more.
Many of you have had to take your boats out of the reservoir, some boats are high and dry on their lifts. I know this information does not help your situation, but at least you may have a better understanding of the reasons and numbers (quantity of water) involved in the dam valves being opened and the differences between Morse and Geist.
Currently, the water company has issued a voluntary notice to home owners and businesses to only water lawns once a week. We hope that in the near future that a mandatory notice will go into effect regarding watering of lawns enforced by local law enforcement agencies.
Click on Water Level Status on our web site’s www.morseh2o.org home page to track the level.
Volunteers still needed:
– July 28th – Lake Cleanup Day. Help us collect 10 dump truck loads of debris in only 4 hours of work from 8:00am – 12:00pm. Register on our web site.
– We are in need of volunteers to help plan our annual social fundraiser. We want to plan something fun and different for this year towards the end of the summer. Please go to our web site to sign up or email us at info@morseH2O.org
If you would like to make a tax deductible contribution to our association, please use the PayPal feature on our web site www.morseh2o.org or make checks payable to Morse Waterways Association and send them to: Jim Schneider, 2460 Cape Henry Ct. Cicero, IN 46034.
Jim Schneider
Jim Schneider, President Morse Waterways Association
