Portales residents asked to conserve water after power outage

PORTALES, N.M. — City officials in Portales are asking residents to conserve water after a storm caused a large portion of a water well field to lose power.

Portales Fire Chief Timothy J. Cathey issued a letter, providing an update Wednesday. A storm caused a large portion of the Black Water Well Field to lose power. As a result, water levels have dropped from 28 feet Tuesday to around 25.8 feet Wednesday morning.

Officials say each foot equals 200,000 gallons of water. That means, water levels have dropped around 440,000 gallons.

City staff are utilizing an emergency contingency plan utilizing the Lime Street Tank and Sandhill Well Field during the emergency.

Staff and elected officials are working with electrical providers to determine a timeline for the outage in the meantime, as well as to obtain generators.