As thousands of people have moved to Baldwin County in the past decade, leaders in one city found themselves in a bind: the water supply hasn’t kept up with demand.

During periods of lower rainfall in recent years, officials in Fairhope asked residents to conserve water. In June, the city entered phase 1 of a water conservation ordinance as demand surpassed 85% of the system’s capacity.

“We see a period of drought in our area, and people start watering their lawns and use their irrigation a lot,” Fairhope Mayor Sherry Sullivan said. “We tend to see our water (usage) creep to over 8 million gallons, and our capacity is 9 million gallons.”

Since 2010, Fairhope’s population has grown by 55.7%, making it one of the fastest growing cities in the state. The most recent census data shows the population of the metro area, which also includes Daphne, Spanish Fort and Foley, grew by 3% between July 2021 and July 2022.

While several factors, such as rainfall and temperatures, influence water usage and supply for cities along the Alabama coast, Fairhope’s officials note that its recreational areas and picturesque landscapes require a large amount of water

“As the city grows, so does your infrastructure. It has to,” said Fairhope Water Superintendent Daryl Morefield. “I think there’s just a little bit of a lag that infrastructure upgrades haven’t kept up with the growth, and that’s what we’re trying to catch up on.”

What makes Fairhope unique is that the city owns its own water utility. There are other cities in Baldwin County that own their own water, but Fairhope Public Utilities is the largest supplier of water in the county, according to their website.

Yet, Fairhope’s water system was first established in 1916 — compare that to Daphne, which started its utility in 1953.

“It’s all going to come down to doing what’s best for the customer and doing what’s best for as many people as possible,” said Sam Williams, chief communications officer at Riveria Utilities, which provides water services to south Baldwin County. “There are different circumstances for different utilities, and they’re also connected to different things.”

When the city first started feeling the pressure of high water use in 2020, Fairhope passed an ordinance that encourages water customers to decrease their water usage in times of high demand.

In addition to population growth, the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic led to officials encouraging people to stay in their homes, and residential water usage increased across the country.

According to the Fairhope ordinance, a water shortage might be occurring if the “system demand is in excess of 85% of the available capacity.”

If the water system reaches a demand of over 100%, there could be widespread water outages.

The ordinance has three phases. The first phase is a precautionary measure — no citations are issued to residents who do not follow the city’s guidance — which primarily addresses irrigation. Phases 2 and 3 are mandatory, meaning those who don’t follow the city’s guidelines could be ticketed.

The city entered Phase 1 of the ordinance in early June, which also happened around the same time last summer. In the following weeks, as rainfall increased, water usage decreased. Water usage was down between June 15-21 from 8.2 million gallons to 6.1 million gallons — a 26.9% decrease.

The on-again-off-again ordinances may be alarming to those in Baldwin County who rely on the Fairhope Water Department for this vital utility, but Fairhope officials say they are already working to increase the city’s water pumping capacity and to address population changes.

The city is currently extending an existing water main from County Road 33 to County Road 48 by 19,859 linear feet and developing a new well.

These two projects, totaling over $7.3 million, have already begun and are expected to be completed by late spring 2024, according to the mayor. The projects will increase capacity by 2 million gallons, raising the pumping limit from 9 million to 11 million gallons.

“We’re continuing to make those improvements every day,” Sullivan said. “Everybody’s concerned about the growth because nobody ever expected our community to grow as fast as it is continuing to grow. I do believe that we as a city are doing things that we need to do to put the infrastructure in place to meet the demands of the growth.”

Fairhope has also recently upgraded electric substations, lining sewer lines to avoid sewer system infiltration and is in the process of rehabbing sewer lift stations and manholes.

“I know it’s inconvenient for people,” she said. “I’ve just found that people complain if we don’t invest in our infrastructure, and then they complain for the inconvenience of having to take a different route to work because we are putting in infrastructure.”