Staff writer

Even with-record setting usage, the City of Durant's water system has remained unstressed.

Last week the City of Durant saw record water usage in excess of seven million gallons per day during the hottest part of the week. At this time last year that level of water usage would have caused major problems. Before improvements to the system were finished last year the city water system could handle only 6 million gallons per day. Due to improvements to the water treatment facilities and the city pumping station, the maximum amount of water that can be used is 10 million gallons per day. The average city-wide water consumption for non-summer months is around three million gallons per day. During summer months the volume of consumption can be nearly twice that.

Durant City Manager Paul Buntz said that the system was able to handle such a large volume without any lack of service because of good planning on the part of the City Council. Buntz said, “I think it is a tribute to our current and former city councils that they had the foresight to improve water treatment and pumping facilities.”

In the last twenty years the city of Durant has never had to resort to water rationing. Buntz said that he had been city manager for over twenty years and could not remember any time that water was rationed.

Buntz blamed the drought that the area has been experiencing as the cause of the increased usage.