Major Water Ban in effect for the Town of Franklin

Important Information:

Major Water Ban in effect for the Town of Franklin

Please Read and pass along,

As I sit here today writing this post,approximately over "3.5 MILLION" Gallons of water is consumed daily here in Franklin. That is actually down from the almost "6 MILLION" Gallons that was consumed one day earlier this month. We should be averaging only 2.5 million per DAY!!

OK, so what does this all mean...

• Lets play the numbers game:

3.5 Million Gallons at 8.34 pounds/gal = 29,190,00 LBS of water
The USS Missouri battle cruiser weighs in at 90 Million pounds, so every 3 days we match the weight of a battle ship :)

An Olympic size swimming pool holds 660,430 gallons of water.
3,500,000/660,430 = ~5.3 Olympic Size pools a day.

The online price of a standard gallon of water at Walmart in Bellingham is $0.88. 3,500,000 x 0.88 = $3,080,000

Currently the Town of Franklin obtains its drinking water from 12 groundwater supply wells. In addition to the 12 water supply wells, the Town operates 8 booster pump stations, 6 water storage tanks, 2,000+ hydrants, 157 miles of water main and approximately 9,000 water services. The Town of Franklin sanitary sewer system is comprised of 137 miles of sewer pipe, 3,400+ manholes and 23 pump stations.

I was told today that the State has moved from being a "Drought' to being an "Extreme Drought" condition.

• What does that mean?

Well according to the
U.S. Drought Monitor Classification Scheme
http://droughtmonitor.unl.edu/aboutus/classificationscheme.aspx

See the chart...

drought severity chart from US Drought Monitor website

We are now officially one level away from the worst possible state we can be in!!

• So why care?

- As water levels diminish our ability to effectively fight fires lowers dramatically. If you haven't noticed even the grass and trees have no water. So, even the slightest spark or ember will ignite them.

- As the water levels diminish our over-all health becomes greatly impacted!

• Am I scaring you?

I hope so...because this is a very serious situation.

Please check out the Town's DWP Water Department webpage for very helpful links and info! 
 http://town.franklin.ma.us/Pages/FranklinMA_PublicWorks/Water_Conservation/Water_Conservation_Index

Please do your part to conserve!

Thank you!

Glenn Jones
Franklin Town Council