do you know where your water comes from?
Lake Georgetown
I don't normally think a whole lot about water. I need a shower, I take a shower. I have dirty dishes, I wash them. The veggies look droopy, I water them. The grass looks brown, I turn on the sprinkler.
And then a pipe bursts.
Not just any pipe. No, some sort of pipey-pumpy gizmo thingie broke last week, and because the lake was already low (hello, nasty drought), suddenly everyone serviced by the lake had to stop all outdoor watering for a few weeks while they fix it. (Without the drought, my understanding is water use could have continued as normal).
The reason for the emergency watering ban is a problem with the raw water pipeline that transfers water from Stillhouse Hollow Lake in Bell County into Lake Georgetown in Williamson County. The pipeline is owned by the cities of Georgetown and Round Rock and the Brushy Creek and Chisholm Trail utility districts. It is operated by the Brazos River Authority. The water pipeline was shut down on Wednesday in order to assess a problem with a coupling joining two sections of pipe. The problem near the intake structure at Stillhouse Hollow Lake arose after testing of two new water pumps.
With the raw water pipeline out of service, the level of Lake Georgetown will continue to drop at an accelerated rate unless water usage rates are significantly reduced. {From the City of Georgetown website}
I found out about this from a neighborhood email loop and Facebook page. Julia London (who lives in an area serviced by the lake, got an automated emergency call at midnight –uh, just WHO is out there watering at midnight?????)
Inconvenient, especially in a year where it's hard enough to keep plants alive. But I can live with inconvenience. What this whole thing has really done, though, is make me think more about where our water (and electricity and gasoline and all these other things we take for granted) comes from. I don't have a well, I no longer have septic, I don't have a generator, and I wouldn't know how to start a fire with two sticks if I was in dire straits. Granted, this is nothing compared to what folks had to go through after Katrina or any other similar emergencies. But it makes you think.
Basically, I've realized that I'm completely useless if the zombie apocalypse comes. (Okay, that's snarky but true, but what's also true is that, once again, I'm thinking that an emergency kit would be a good thing.)
How about y'all? Weathered any water/weather/utility emergencies? Do you have an emergency kit? Where do you keep it? What's in it?
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