AMARILLO, TEXAS -- From the dead of winter to the middle of summer, water usage around the Panhandle can just about triple.
The effort to reduce our use and save money is an ongoing challenge, but it might be easier now.
It is arguably our most precious resource, and just looking at Lake Meredith, we can see how quickly it can disappear. Agricultural, industrial, city and home use tax our water table daily, to the tune of about 70 million gallons a day during the summer.
So the City of Amarillo has a large group in place to look for ways to educate and implment conservation measures.
"The City has a conservation team of 19 people and we look at conservation from evert angle. Our major focus is to get that information and opportunity out to the people, but we'll learn a few things fro ourselves in the process and we know there's room for imrpovement and we aim to go there," according to Emmett Autry, Director of Utilities.
Autry wants people to starts looking at water as energy. If we reduce our energy use around here, it also drops the amount of water used in the creation of electricity.
"If people can cut their energy use then there's a reduction in the amount orf water used overall, that it takes to run the city. It doesn't benefit their bills but it reduces the use of water from the Aquifer."
And you can play a big part too. By getting a rain barrel as a system to catch water and use it around your house, you qualify for a rebate.
"The water conservation team has put together and the city commission has approved, the rainwater harvesting rebate system. For example, a 48 gallon rain catchment barrel gets a 25 dollar deduct off their water bill."
You can find more tips and money saving measures that also saves our resources on the City's webpage...(www.amarillo.gov) just look for the "Every Drop Counts" icon.
