Woodbury on Pace for Record Water Usage

Despite the rain Tuesday morning, you’ve probably heard the nation—and most of Minnesota—is under drought conditions.

And Woodbury is on pace to use a record amount of water in 2012.

The previous high was set it 2007, said Dan Hansen, utilities supervisor for Woodbury. He compiled the January through September numbers from that year and compared them to 2012.

“We’re actually only five million gallons ahead of where we were in 2007,” he said.

Isn’t that a lot?

“In the grand scheme of things, it’s not,” Hansen said.

In 2007, Woodbury used 2.880 billion gallons of water. Over the past few years that figure has hovered closer to 2.4 billion to 2.5 billion, Hanson said.

The dry summer led to more water usage this year, and he acknowledged that there are more people in the city now than five years ago, also contributing to the increase.

The most water pumped in one day in 2007 was 21.288 million gallons; this summer it was 19.353.

In 2007, the city struggled to keep up with the demand for water and had mechanical issues in at least one of its wells, Hanson said. Woodbury has since added two municipal wells, he said, and there haven’t been any problems this year.

“We haven’t felt the pinch like we did in ’07,” Hansen said.

The main reason for increased water usage in general is irrigation, Hansen said.

      Related: Another Watering Warning from Woodbury

Typical winter usage is about four million gallons a day. During summer it can jump up to 19 million gallons per day, as it did this summer, Hanson said.

“That’s substantial,” he said.

As for the sprinkles Tuesday morning: “We’re liking the rain,” Hansen said.

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