Due to water levels in Pactola Reservoir, the City of Rapid City is implementing water restrictions a month early — starting May 1.
It’s the first time in over 15 years the city has extended water conservation efforts.
According to city officials, this is the first time the city has implemented ‘concerned status’ since the fall of 2008.
Eric Boyda, Rapid City Water Superintendent, said reservoir storage is below about 49,000 acre feet.
“And that that reduction in storage is just because we haven't really getting the precipitation and snow over the last year that we would expect and even some of the precipitation that happened in the Black Hills recently really did not happen too much in the Pactola drainage basin,” Boyda said. “We’ve had almost a year of below median flows going into Pactola.”
Boyda said there’s no immediate emergency related to the reduction in water storage at Pactola — he said the region still has about four to five years’ worth of water stored in the reservoir.
Pactola Reservoir is the primary drinking water source for Rapid City, Box Elder and the Ellsworth Airforce Base.
The ‘concerned status’ means Rapid City residents will have to stagger when they can water their lawns a month earlier.
Boyda said the status change is an extension of city water conservation efforts in the summer.
“We'll evaluate it again in August. to see if we need to extend in September," Boyda said. "So, we'll see how much precipitation we get over the summer.”
Earlier this year, state lawmakers approved a future use water permit application by Western Dakota Regional Water System for 20,765 acre feet of water from the Missouri River annually. That brings the total water rights for the West River nonprofit at nearly 75,000 acre feet.
