Council tables emergency water rates vote to Aug. 8 meeting

WAVERLY — Despite a relatively wet July, water levels are still causing concern for City of Waverly officials, and a water emergency remains in effect.

But with an item on the agenda at its July 25 meeting that would have determined whether water rate increases would be enacted, the Waverly City Council voted to table the item until the Aug. 8 meeting.

If enacted, the new rate would charge households an additional $5 for every 1,000 gallons used beyond 10,000 gallons for the month. Existing water rates tack on $2.41 per 1,000 gallons used beyond 10,000, and the emergency rate would push the total fee to $7.41.

The emergency rates were first introduced and voted on at the June 27 council meeting, and the third and final reading of the ordinance to increase the rates was to be voted on at the July 25 meeting.

Mayor Bill Gerdes and council member David Jespersen were not in attendance at last Tuesday’s meeting, held at the Waverly VFW Post 9875 hall to accommodate larger crowds.

Waverly’s public works department conducted its monthly water readings the same day, according to City Administrator Stephanie Fisher, and council member Aaron Hummel made a motion to postpone the council’s vote until more information could be gathered about the city’s water usage in July. The motion passed on a 3-0 vote.

Public Works Director Tracey Whyman gave a presentation at the meeting detailing the situation the city is facing. Following 10 straight months of low rainfall totals, Lancaster County saw a bump in June and July, receiving 10.14 inches in the two months.

The drought was considered an “exceptional drought” — the driest possible rating — by University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s U.S. Drought Monitor as recently as late June. Most of Lancaster County, including Waverly, has seen conditions improve to a “severe drought” status.

Whyman also said the city’s water usage has decreased by 44% since June, when Gerdes’s water emergency declaration went into effect. At that point, Waverly was using well over 1 million gallons per day for the month of June, hitting 1.6 million gallons on June 20. The city’s average usage from July 1 to July 24 was lower at 625,983 gallons.

“Which is good, because we’re saving about 15 million gallons of water that’s still in the aquifer that we didn’t pump out,” Whyman said.

But Whyman said Lancaster County’s precipitation deficit stretches back to 2020 and has left the area 33 inches below its normal rainfall for that span of time.

As it was explained at the July 11 council meeting by David Miesbach — the Nebraska Department of Environment and Energy’s Groundwater Unit Supervisor — the aquifer that supplies Waverly’s water is replenished through a process called recharge, which can take several years as moisture seeps through layers of earth to reach the aquifer.

Whyman said the lack of precipitation over time has left six of the city’s wells within five feet of the top of the well screens. The water levels at those wells have not decreased in recent weeks thanks to conservation efforts. But Fisher said those efforts must continue.

“Our static levels are able to be maintained with the conservation efforts that are happening,” Fisher said. “So that’s why we hope and plead with everybody to continue the conservation that they’re doing.”

Council member Abbey Pascoe said she doesn’t want to enact emergency water rates, but she said several residents were still violating the mandatory water restrictions last week. Residents are currently restricted from watering their lawns on Mondays.

“There were a significant number of people who were not following the ordinance (on Monday) and watering their lawns. That’s a problem,” Pascoe said. “We all have to get through this together. We all have to work together to conserve water. And until that’s done, we have to have it on the table that rates can be raised. It’s just the way it is.”

According to the Waverly ordinance governing declarations of water watches, warnings or emergencies, a water emergency declaration can only be made when one of four “triggers” is satisfied. When Gerdes announced the water emergency, the city met two of them: water pumping was causing levels to fall within five feet of the top of well screens, and the city was averaging more than 1 million gallons of water used per day.

On July 25, only the well screen trigger was being met. Waverly resident, former council member and current Lancaster County Court Judge Joe Dalton pressed Whyman and the council on whether the city is following the ordinance as it is written.

Dalton asked Whyman when the last time was that all of the city’s well water levels were five feet or more above the well screen. Whyman said he could not remember off the top of his head, but he suggested it may have been in 2015 when the area received higher-than-normal rainfall.

The ordinance’s trigger reads that a water emergency may be declared if “pumping lowers water levels to within five feet of the top of the well screens.” Dalton said that could be read to suggest that a water emergency could be declared if any of the city’s wells falls to within five feet of the top of the well screen.

“If it’s been since 2015 that we’ve been meeting this category, from what you’re telling me is unless we get a whole lot of rain and really soon, we’re not going to ever get there,” Dalton said. “So, we’re going to be in this water emergency … indefinitely.”

Pascoe said the water emergency ordinance has not been updated since the 1990s, and she asked that Fisher and Whyman consult an engineer to “review, revamp and revise” the ordinance to reflect the city’s current water use trends. Waverly’s population has more than doubled since the ordinance was last changed, Whyman said.

Council member Aaron Hummel agreed that the ordinance needs to be updated and could be seen as “soft.” He said enacting water watches or warnings before a situation turns dire would help prepare residents in the event that a water emergency should be declared.

“I kind of feel like we need to be more proactive on the warnings, the watches, and then when we get into the emergency, then that needs to be something a lot more strict,” Hummel said.

Get local news delivered to your inbox!

News, Features

WAHOO — A Weston man was charged last month with first-degree sexual assault of a Wahoo woman after more than a year of investigation. On July…

WAVERLY — When Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen announced last Thursday the state’s intention to build a new $350 million, 1,500-bed prison near 112th…

Police on Friday identified the man who died in the collision Thursday afternoon as 77-year-old John Mayfield.

A 33-year-old man died following a shooting near Miller Park in North Omaha.

Two women who died last week when their minivan rear-ended a tractor in northeast Nebraska have been identified.