Rainfall filled the Commerce reservoir last week, but the level of the Bear Creek Regional Reservoir continues to fall.
“The reservoir went back to 697.6,” observed Bryan Harbin, Commerce’s director of water and sewer operations.
The number refers to the height of the lake’s surface in feet above sea level. Harbin said 697.6 is full for the city reservoir.
He noted that over a three-day period (Wednesday through Friday) last week, some 1.5 inches of rain fell at the reservoir.
The 300-acre lake on the Grove River benefits from rainfall anywhere in its drainage basin, which stretches up to Gillsville. There are also a number of springs within the reservoir that help make it a dependable source of water even in times of drought. As a result, it was just a few inches below full pool before the rains came last Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.
REGIONAL RESERVOIR STILL LOW
But the Bear Creek Reservoir, which serves residents of Barrow, Jackson, Oconee and Clarke counties, gained little from the rain.
As of last Friday, the reservoir was 9.4 feet below full, but because of the rain the Upper Oconee Basin Water Authority was able to pump water from the Middle Oconee River into the reservoir Saturday and Sunday, Sept. 24-25.
A spokesman at the water treatment plant at the reservoir said a combination of rainfall and two days of partial pumping added three to four inches to the level of the reservoir. An inch equates to from 10 to 11 million gallons.
By the end of Sunday the water level in the river had fallen to the point there was insufficient volume to allow pumping into the reservoir. As of Monday afternoon, the lake level was at 686.62, 9.38 feet below full.
The water authority operates three pumps that are each capable of moving 20 million gallons of water a day from the Middle Oconee River into the reservoir. Unfortunately, the river level did not rise sufficiently at any time last week to allow the authority to operate all three of the pumps.
Because of the falling water level in the 500-acre lake, the authority instituted restrictions on outdoor water usage last week. The authority was scheduled to meet Wednesday, at which time a discussion of further restrictions was on the agenda.
In Jackson County, customers of the county water and sewerage authority and the municipalities of Jefferson, Braselton and Hoschton all get water from the Bear Creek Reservoir and are subject to the watering restrictions.
There are no restrictions on the use of water in Commerce.
