BILLINGS — All the rainfall Billings has seen in June has been both a blessing and a curse. According to the city, water usage is down significantly compared to past years.
"Two years ago this day, we were pumping 50 million gallons a day. And today we’re pumping 22 million gallons a day. So that’s quite a swing,” said Derick Miller, the street and traffic superintendent for the City of Billings, on Friday.
Miller explained the city's five-year water flow report shows staggering differences between this year and years past.
“I talked to our Water Quality Division down at the Water Department and they pulled out the five-year report for it," Miller said. "When we started out in May, we were at the top of the five-year charts. So it’s the most water we’ve used in the last five years. We were sitting right there in May, and then all of a sudden June hit, and now we’re at the five-year low for it."
Over the past five years, this June holds the record for the least amount of water used, while this May holds the record for the most water used.
This means lighter water bills for users like Yegen Golf Club, which was hit heavily with water in early June.
“We got five inches (of rain) all in one go. We had our ditches overflowing and our ponds overflowing," said Joshua Brown, the superintendent at Yegen Golf Club, on Tuesday.
Due to the heavy rainfall, the golf course hasn't been watering the way it normally does in June.
“We’ve hardly watered at all this year. Maybe five times," Brown said.
Brown explained the course typically waters once a day during this time of the year.
"Pretty much every day, especially by this time of the year. We probably put out five, six-hundred-thousand gallons a night all of June last year," Brown said. "I would say I’ve put down 600,000 (gallons this year)."
But Yegen isn’t the only course underwater. Hilands Golf Club has also been dealing with the unusual problem of too much water.
“June so far, here at the course at our weather station that we have, we’ve had 7.35 inches of total precipitation," said Pete Grass, the superintendent at Hilands Golf Club, on Tuesday. "There’s been years when we haven’t had that in an entire year, including snowfall."
Grass has worked at the private club for more than 40 years and says he’s never seen this much rainfall in June.
"But the beauty of that is very little irrigation water is needed," Grass said. "There should be some significant savings in some water bills for the month of June."
Perhaps less revenue for the city, but good news for homeowners.
To view this week's weather forecast, click here.
