Valley View under emergency water rationing after Pecan Creek well outage

Valley View is under an emergency water rationing notice that took effect immediately, with residents and businesses told to limit nonessential water use while the Pecan Creek well is out of service, according to a city notice posted publicly through the Cooke County fire marshal's office Facebook page. The notice ties the restrictions to a limited water supply after the well went down.

Repair work on the well was scheduled to begin the same day the notice was issued, according to the notice. No end date was given. The emergency conservation measures remain in force until further notice.

Federal records show where the well sits in the city's water system. The Environmental Protection Agency's drinking-water database lists an active permanent groundwater well at 201 S. Pecan Creek Trail as part of Valley View's public water system, identified as TX0490049. The same record shows an emergency interconnection with Bolivar Water Supply Corporation that the database lists as inactive.

City code sets out who may order emergency measures. Valley View's drought contingency ordinance authorizes the mayor, or a person the mayor designates, to begin or end water-supply emergency responses when the step is needed to protect public health, safety and welfare. Under the ordinance's Stage 5 emergency rules, landscape irrigation and vehicle washing are prohibited and the stated target is a 10 percent reduction in water use. The public notice describes the current measures as limits on nonessential use.

The plan behind those rules was adopted on July 8, 2021, when the Board of Aldermen approved it on a 4-0 vote, according to city meeting minutes. The minutes say the plan had been updated for the Greater Texoma Utility Authority and that staff knew of no previous drought in the city.

In state water planning, the Texas Water Development Board counts Valley View's system within Cooke County's "County-Other" water-user group rather than among the municipal water-user groups the county planning materials list individually.

Other Cooke County cities have emergency water provisions in their own codes. Muenster's municipal code separately allows the mayor or mayor pro tem to place households on a water-allocation rationing schedule when a shortage threatens public health, safety and welfare. Gainesville's water-conservation page says the city's conservation and emergency management plan was developed under drought-contingency guidance from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, and 2019 city council minutes record its adoption on a unanimous 7-0 vote.