Although they use copious amounts of water, local industries remain unaffected by water restrictions.
Gates Corporation and Russell Stover Candies lead all businesses in water consumption for the Iola area.
Since the first of the week, residents are required to limit their water use because of the prolonged drought.
“We don’t have a lawn to water at the plant so the restrictions don’t really apply to us right now,” Darrell Wick, Russell Stover Candies plant manager, said. “We’ve just been using what we need to use.”
In July, Russell Stover, used more than 2 million gallons of water, according to City of Iola statistics.
The high volume isn’t lost on Wick.
“We have to pay for our water just like everyone else,” Wick said. “We use water conservation methods that are pretty standard in our industry to keep that number down. We want to maintain as low of a cost as we can.”
Gates Corporation, which also operates on a 24-hour a day work schedule, consumed more than 3.3 million gallons of water last month.
Attempts to reach Gates management for comment were unsuccessful.
From Jan. 1 to July 31, when the last billing of the two companies was completed, Gates and Russell Stover had used 17 million and 13 million gallons of water respectively. This is compared to 2011 usage over the same length of time when Gates consumed 18 million gallons, while Russell Stovers used 12 million gallons.
“We haven’t had any conversations with Gates or Russell Stover,” Carl Slaugh, city administrator, said. “Because we are part of the water assurance program we aren’t looking at any kind of problems that we would need to talk to them about so far.”
