Summer may be long gone but the state's drought problems are not and without any recent heavy rains, the Brazos River Authority decided to issue a Stage One Drought Contingency Plan. This stage is voluntary but the situation could get much worse down the road.
There's a leak in Elizabeth Presas' mother's home. "This has been an ongoing leak for several days where it hadn't been remedied," she said.
This after the recent notice that Killeen and the rest of the cities in the Bell County WCID District One are under stage one in it's water contingency plan. So now is a good time to get it fixed.
Stage one is voluntary but a look at a recent drought monitor from the Brazos River Authority shows that the entire state is in bad shape.
"All we're trying to do by the voluntary 5% reduction is to make people aware of what could potentially be a drought situation coming on later in 2013," said Jerry Atkinson, General Manager of the Bell County WCID 1.
Both Belton and Stillhouse Hallow Lake are lower than this time last year but Atkinson says November water sales are up at 6.6% higher this year than they were last year.
"It's all about the weather," said Atkinson. "The weather patterns are different this year than they were last year so with it being dry people are using more water than they would normally use."
But Elizabeth says from now, she'll use less water. "Where we draw water upon is something that just not going to replenish itself and so I feel like people need to pay more attention and take heed," she said.
It's easy to spot a leak faucet but one of the biggest water wasters out there is actually the toilet. And the flapper in the tank is usually the reason.
The City of Temple says they are also in stage one of their water conservation plan. In fact, the city has been in stage one since 2011.
