Rainfall not nearly enough to end water ban - 13 WTHR Indianapolis

With some people lucky enough to get rain recently, many are asking when will the strict watering ban end.

But the number of cities considered to be in an extreme drought actually increased Thursday and Citizens Water says the watering ban likely will last the entire summer season.

A simple walk along the shore at Morse Reservoir and Steve McDonald is literally dwarfed by the drought. The old water line on the dam, that's long since dried up, is above his head.

"It's unbelievable, you know," McDonald said. "The rain situation, it's killing everyone this year - farmers, fishermen, even people that swim. You know, I don't know where it's gonna end."

In fact, the water levels at Morse are still dangerously low - 5.71 feet below normal. That's despite drastically lower water usage since the watering ban was implemented. Usage was at 158 million gallons on July 25, compared to a record high of 233 million gallons a month ago.

Recent pockets of rainfall, even downpours in some neighborhoods, haven't substantially helped the drought either. The rain hasn't hit everywhere, and not nearly enough has fallen. That brings sobering news from Citizens Water about Marion County's watering ban.

"At this point, we're not close to lifting the ban. It's not something that we're even talking about, quite frankly. I think it's probably safe to say unless something drastic changes, the ban will probably be in place all summer," said Citizens Energy Group spokesperson Sarah Holsapple.

"That doesn't surprise me. It's hardly been raining at all," said Indianapolis resident Kevin Schmidlin.

Schmidlin is trying to care for new trees, just planted at his employer's business downtown, but it's been a struggle.

"How are they doing? Not so great. A lot of them as you can see are brown and dying," he explained.

Irrigation countywide has gone from 40 percent of total water use to just 10 percent since the ban. So conservation is helping our water supply. But the weather isn't.

That's why the watering ban is here to stay for quite some time.

"Unless we get several days of consecutive rainfall, where it's almost raining all day long, pop-up showers here and there aren't going to be enough for us to lift that ban," Holsapple said.