City of Midland Still Dealing With Dozens of Water Violations - KWES NewsWest 9 / Midland, Odessa, Big Spring, TX: newswest9.com |

City of Midland Still Dealing With Dozens of Water Violations

By Geena Martinez
NewsWest 9

MIDLAND - Summer 2012 is months away but water officials are already preparing for an even tougher time because of the drought.

The Colorado River Municipal Water District is looking at every option to keep water flowing but the city of Midland is still having a tough time getting their residents to comply with the restrictions.

Lake levels are at all time lows, and the way they're looking right now, our water supply is only projected to last until January 2013.

Nearly six months after Midland's water restrictions were first introduced to residents, Steve Thorpe and his staff in Code Enforcement are still having trouble getting them to comply.

"It seems that we're actually having more nuisance water issues than we were back in August and September," Thorpe said.

Just in the last six weeks, Code Enforcement has issued 75 warnings and 10 tickets for various water violations.

On Monday, a surprising number was released. The city of Midland has already used 99% of the total water used for the whole year of 2010.

"Some people are just watering like there's not an issue," Thorpe said. "We just don't know what's up."

During the winter, both Midland and Odessa get between 13 and 14 million gallons of water a day.

The Colorado River Municipal Water District is now considering keeping those water limits during summer 2012 to give Lake Ivie more time.

"We can get another 90-120 days, three to four more months of use out of Ivie and that's something we're seriously looking at," John Grant with CRMWD, said.

It's a dramatic drop in delivery from the summer before.

"We can't make it rain," Grant said. "We need a little help."

Thorpe said residents can help by understanding these restrictions are crucial to our future.

"Climatologists are saying we have another year of this at least and if that's the case I don't know what we're going to do," he said.

Both Midland and Odessa went over their water limits several times this past summer. Grant said the Water District can control the flow of water to cities if that keeps happening. He also said he'll be making a recommendation to the Water Board about steps they should take in the future.