City of Wichita Falls water program hits milestone

WICHITA FALLS, Texas (KAUZ) - The City of Wichita Falls Indirect Potable Reuse water program reached a milestone on Jan. 24, 2023.

Since 2018, 9 billion gallons have now been processed, filtered, disinfected and tested at the city’s Resource Recovery plant and put back into Lake Arrowhead, according to the City of Wichita Falls.

“9 billion gallons equates to two years of water usage in Wichita Falls, and that’s what has been pumped back into the lake to help make the city more drought tolerant,” Public Works Director Russell Schreiber said.

Water officials are predicting the city will reach 10 billion gallons sometime this spring.

The IPR program is a water supply strategy implemented to combat the water shortages caused by the 2011-2015 historic drought. It takes wastewater and after being treated and processed to a very high quality, sends it back into Lake Arrowhead instead of sending it down the Wichita River.