The City of Heath has adopted the North Texas Municipal Water District’s (NTMWD) year-round, two-day-a-week irrigation schedule for all end-users.
If City water usage exceeds 90% of the daily water supply limit for two days in a seven-day period (5.4M gallons), Stage 2 restrictions will be re-instated to avoid a water crisis such as a boil notice.
For example, if your house number is 1265 your designated day is Wednesday.
Check the date of the post to ensure you are getting the most recent information.
Many options continue to be pursued by City of Heath staff and its engineering consultants to identify and secure future water resources to lessen the conservation burden on existing citizens.
Water information presentations.
HOA ROUND TABLE 08/28/23
Former Public Works Director, Matt Holzapfel presents a water status report to Heath HOA representatives.
WATER STATUS REPORT 07/25/23
Former Public Works Director, Matt Holzapfel presents a water status report to City Council at the July 25th meeting. Scrub timeline to 11:00m.
WHAT IS A WATER CRISIS?
If customer demand exceeds 6.0 million gallons per days, the system could experience a loss of pressure in the distribution system and require a Boil Water Notice.
WHAT IS A BOIL NOTICE?
A boil water notice is a public statement advising people to boil their tap water before consuming it, typically in response to an event that has (or could have) introduced contaminants into the water distribution system. Such events include a large water main break, widespread loss of system pressure, or results of routine sample testing in the system.
Although waterborne diseases are extremely rare, they can be serious. The risk is higher for infants, the elderly and people with immune deficiency disorders.
A boil notice can also result in the closure of businesses such as restaurants, grocery stores and schools due to a lack of safe water for consumption, cleaning and sanitation requirements.
CAN I WATER TREES, PLANTS, LANDSCAPING WITH A SOAKER HOSE OR HAND HELD DEVICE?
Yes, you can water trees, plants and landscaping with a soaker hose or handheld device on any day, but not between the hours of 10 a.m. and 6 p.m.
WHY CAN’T WE WATER WITH IRRIGATION SYSTEMS ON THE WEEKEND?
The weekend downtime provides an opportunity to refill the storage tanks and rebuild pressure.
WHY IS THE CITY ONLY RECENTLY CARING ABOUT OUR WATER SYSTEM?
The City has always cared about water. The topic of water infrastructure, storage capacity, delivery system and supply receives focus every year by City Council and staff.
For decades, Heath has had the most reliable and efficient system and source of water via the City of Rockwall, which is a customer City of the North Texas Water Municipal District. (That makes the City of Heath a customer of Rockwall.)
In 2022, we began to see signs of that reliability falling apart when the City of Rockwall capped the water available to the City of Heath when NTWMD’s plant in Wylie went offline and greatly impacted Rockwall’s availability to provide water to its customers, which also include RCH and Blackland.
In 2023, we again saw the dwindling reliability as the City of Rockwall informed the City of Heath that they cannot provide more water than our 6 million gallons a day maximum.
The problems in 2022 plus 2023 became a pattern, spurring the City of Heath to take quick action. First, the water restrictions were initiated to ensure the ability to continue to serve our citizens during this prolonged heat and drought. Secondly, by seeking redundancy and new sources of water.
The City of Heath is now working with a consultant to identify the necessary infrastructure, storage capacity and all available water sources to secure and protect our ability to serve our customers now and through projected build out.
This is not an easy task. It will take at least five years and considerable expense. And the City of Heath is not alone in competing for a finite resource. With population growth and hotter/drier summers, the water challenge will be a new norm throughout the State of Texas, the U.S. and internationally.
Even as we work to expand our capacity, citizens will have to change their water consumption behavior. Watering lawns with an irrigation system being the #1 drain on our system.
HOW MUCH WATER DOES HEATH REALLY USE DAILY?
Last summer (2022), without water restrictions, City of Heath customers were using over 7 million gallons a day. Lawn and landscaping irrigation is almost exclusively the driver of summer peak water demand, taking 2/3s of the available daily water supply.
In the fall/winter, daily consumption for the City of Heath hovers around 1.5 million gallons per day.
WHY CAN’T THE CITY JUST BUY MORE WATER?
As it has been communicated previously, the City’s daily allotment from the City of Rockwall is 6 million gallons. This is not about money; the City has the funds to buy more if it were possible. There simply is no additional water to purchase. Despite numerous requests to obtain additional water, our water supplier (City of Rockwall) does not have any additional water to provide.
This is a limit on the supplier’s ability to produce obtain water from the North Texas Water Municipal District (NTWMD); not a limit to the City’s ability to purchase or pump the water. Heath’s pumping capacity is nearly twice the amount we are allotted.
A firm has been retained to assist in a water study to help identify additional water sources as well as infrastructure needed to expand storage and delivery capacities. But this is a longer-term solution. Citizens are encouraged to conserve now, with the use of irrigation systems to water landscaping and lawns being the #1 driver of water demand in the summer.
HOW IS POPULATION/HOUSING GROWTH IMPACTING OUR WATER DEMAND?
Our provider at the top of the supply chain – North Texas Municipal Water District (NTWMD) — has a service population of more than 2 million. This is increasing by 55,000 per year. That number is expected to grow to 5.7 million in the next 50 years. In the past decade alone, North Texas has experienced a 32% increase in its population to 7.7 million residents.
With intentional care to manage growth through development guidelines specified in the 2018 Comprehensive Plan, the City of Heath has experienced a much lower growth rate. A 2018 Water Study Evaluation by Freeman and Millican projected Heath’s demand to increase by 4.5% per year. The City is trending at approximately 3% per year, with approximately 100 new homes being built each year.
The use of irrigation systems to water landscaping and lawns is the #1 driver of water demand in the summer, using approximately 2/3s of the available supply.
CAN’T THE CITY OF HEATH STOP ISSUING NEW HOME PERMITS?
With intentional care to manage growth through development guidelines in the 2018 Comprehensive Plan, the City of Heath has experienced a much lower growth rate and demand on the water system than surrounding cities. A 2018 Water Study Evaluation by Freeman and Millican projected Heath’s demand to increase by 4.5% per year.
The City is trending at approximately 3% per year, with approximately 100 – 125 new homes being built each year. The approval and platting of any higher density home developments such as Heath Golf and Yacht Club occurred nearly a decade ago. No higher density home developments have been approved since the 2018 Comprehensive Plan was adopted.
A building moratorium has been suggested by many citizens. The State of Texas has strong property rights and development vesting laws that protect builders from such a moratorium if a final plat has been approved by the City. If a developer/builder/property owner has an approved plat, they are legally entitled to a building permit.
IF NEW HOME LOTS WITH PLATS APPROVED IN THE PAST ARE LEGALLY ENTITLED TO BUILD, WHAT ELSE CAN THE CITY DO TO LIMIT THE DEMAND ON OUR WATER SUPPLY?
The City of Heath is now working with a consultant to identify the infrastructure, storage capacity and all available water sources to secure and protect our ability to serve our customers. This is not an easy task. It will take up to five years and considerable expense.
Sourcing water in the face of population growth and changing weather patterns is going to become a new norm: not just here in Heath, but throughout the state, the U.S. and internationally. Even as we work to expand our capacity, citizens will have to change their water consumption behavior. With watering lawns with an irrigation system being the #1 drain on our system. So, education is a big thing.
Also, staff is working to bring to the City Council a landscaping ordinance that would require the installation of drought tolerant landscaping and turf and encourage Xeriscaping to minimize irrigation water demand from future construction.
Additionally, the City is in communication with HOA leaders throughout the community to educate them on the situation and encourage them to foster conservation in their own subdivisions. A primary step is to stop requiring residents to install sod and fining them for brown lawns.
Nobody should be installing new landscaping or sod from May – September.
The City of Heath’s water supplier is the City of Rockwall, which is a member city of the North Texas Municipal Water District (NTMWD).
The NTMWD is a shared regional system that serves 80 North Texas communities. NTMWD acts as a regional wholesaler of water to its member and customer cities.
Just like any product, there is a water system supply chain that must be operated, maintained and upgraded to provide expected service needs and to meet a constantly growing demand. When this investment is not made, there can be drastic failures. See infographic on the right.
The NTMWD supplies water to 2 million north Texas customers/residents. This number is expected to grow to 3.7 million customers / residents in the next 50 years. Every community will be competing for the same water, which means this limited resource will become more expensive and its use more restricted.
The NTMWD owns and operates:
NTMWD does NOT draw water from Lake Ray Hubbard, which is a reservoir for the City of Dallas. The level of Lake Ray Hubbard does not affect the conservation needs of NTMWD member and customer cities.
The City of Heath water supply contract with the City of Rockwall allowed up to 5.5 million gallons per day. But as the hot, dry summer simmered on, Heath customer demand spiked drastically to over 7 million gallons per day. At the same time, NTMWD was struggling to meet Rockwall’s overall demand. (Its member city.) Some of NTMWD’s supply issues stemmed from unscheduled plant shutdowns that restricted its treated water output in addition to the increased water use system wide. Rockwall directed Heath to immediately reduce water use, thus the rapid acceleration of water restrictions for Heath customers.
Heath’s maximum nominal current storage facilities are:
However, these storage facilities are rarely full due to operational demands and the greatest amount of storage is almost 4 miles outside of the Heath City limits (near IH 30).
