Gardner’s water woes dominated discussions during a city council meeting Oct. 1 with a consultant describing the current water situation in the city as urgent and fast approaching an emergency.
Jeffrey Klein, a project manager at Burns and McDowell, an engineering firm with vast experience in water projects, told the council that the city is running out of time, and the city may experience frequent shortages in the near future.
The company presented the city with several options to forestall shortages in the future including proposals to expand capacity from Hillsdale water reservoir, re-establishing Gardner Lake as a source and connecting the city’s system to Water One, the largest provider of water in the region. The city instituted a water restriction order on residents this summer and severely restricted sale of bulk water to residents of the surrounding unincorporated communities.
“Demand is outpacing supply and has moved from urgency to emergency,” he said adding that the city is projected to need 5 million gallons of water a day by 2020 and 7million gallons by 2027.
(Read more: Gardner News)