In the face of a water shortage emergency, the Town of Washington Board of Trustees must now seek an alternative method to supplement the municipal water system after Goldsby Public Works Director Ronny Nelson rejected on Monday a request from Washington Town Administrator Paul Aday to negotiate the purchase of water from Goldsby.

“We’re sending out alerts to our citizens, to all the homeowners’ associations to remind their people that we’re on even rationing because we’re at a critical level even now,” Nelson said.

On Tuesday, Goldsby also began to ration water since the town’s water towers are now below 60 percent capacity, Nelson said.

With summer near its height, the Washington board voted during a special meeting on Monday to approve Resolution #2024-6, which authorized Town Administrator Paul Aday to seek approval from the Goldsby Water Authority to temporarily open an extension valve between the two municipal water systems.

Upon approval from Goldsby, the town would have been allowed to purchase up to one million gallons of water, then re-evaluate continued use of the valve.

The Washington board also voted to amend its June 15 water rationing proclamation, extending the emergency through the end of September.

“The mayor of the Town of Washington has determined from evidence presented to him by the town administrator that the municipal water system will become unable to supply the commercial and domestic needs of the users thereof, including adequate fire protection if usage continues at present volumes,” the proclamation reads.

However, for many cities and towns across Oklahoma, summer water rationing is commonplace. In 2013, Oklahoma City instituted a permanent water conservation program, implementing odd-even water rationing full time.

“We have had a growth explosion the last couple of years,” Aday said. “That’s what’s really put a strain, and a lot of people are cooperating with rationing. We’d just like to encourage everybody to conserve as much as they can.”

According to Nelson and Washington Mayor Joel Siria, both Washington and Goldsby are continually looking for ways to increase the capacity of their municipal water systems.

Washington currently has a grant to do water and sewer system engineering studies, which are ongoing, Siria said. The Oklahoma Rural Water Association and various engineering firms are working with the town to assess the current state of its system and provide recommendations where improvements can be made.

Goldsby is looking to construct a mile of 12-inch water line to help resolve repeated water emergencies.

“One of the issues we have is the infrastructure is too small to pump enough water fast enough to fill a water tower to our west side,” Nelson said.

There are also 400 homes in Goldsby platted to be built, so any infrastructure upgrades will be “short-lived,” he said.

“We’ve been planning this for years and just implementing it, getting through all the stuff you’ve got to get through,” he said. “We take our water business very serious.”