Hays-Trinity Groundwater Conservation District sets the annual well pumping volume, and also allocates the total by month.  This is the “baseline” in the table.  A voluntary, suggested 10% reduction is displayed as Stage 1.  As drought conditions warrant, HTGCD declares mandatory monthly curtailments shown as Stage 2 – 4.  Stage 2 was declared effective July and August, and Stage 3 declared effective September. The charts plot LV’s actual usage against the Baseline, Stage 1 – Voluntary and the running total of Voluntary plus any curtailments declared.  In the first chart, LV under ran the monthly allotments Jan – Mar, then exceeded all targets in April & May, with a big spike in June.  Although consumption dropped significantly in July, it still exceeded the mandatory curtailment level. Consumption in August again rose back to June levels, exceeding the mandatory curtailment level. It is important to remember this is the consumption of 202 customer connections compared to the maximum permitted for 250 customer connections.

As pumps withdraw water from the bottom of the well, an inverted cone of depression in the water table is formed.  The rate at which water can be withdrawn depends on the underground hydrology – how quickly the ground water moves through the rock and soils to recharge the water table at the well point.   Excessive run hours, not allowing adequate recharge, causes the nominal pump capacity to decline.  In LV’s case, Wells #1 and 2 have a nominal capacity of 140 gpm, but currently (mid-August) the capacity has been reduced to around 110 gpm, as the wells have been pumping 24 hours per day for extended periods.