Bartlesville Mayor Dale Copeland was our guest on KWON's CITY MATTERS program on Tuesday. The topics ranges from some brief recaps of last week's city council agenda items to Halloween safety and a reminder to vote. The big topic was our current drought and the city's water supply.

 

When asked about our lake levels, Mayor Copeland said, " It's not as bad as some people would imagine. When the lakes are full, they hold an amazing amount of water, but obviously we haven't had any rain. I see this morning that it's the worst drought in a hundred years. So, we do need rain, and we need the rain to be north of here."

Copeland said, "Overall the water supply is at 81.6%. With it being fall, water use will go down.... watering yards and gardens and all of those things will begin to diminish. So that's a good thing."

Copeland outlined what steps could be taken if the drought worsens saying, "Based on our ordinance if levels drop below 80%, We will begin an education thing to make people aware of it. But once it drops to 75%, we go to a rationing setup, but it's for watering yards on odd and even days in the wintertime I don't anticipate that being a big issue."

"We need to always be aware of our water usage any time of the year whether we have a drought or not" Copeland concluded.