HUMBOLDT — A request to purchase waste water to prepare Humboldt Speedway for weekly races turned into a drought relief measure at Monday night’s council meeting.
City Administrator Larry Tucker proposed selling “gray” water — that used to back-flow filters at the water plant and then discharged to the Neosho River — to the speedway to wet its track before races. Water for the track normally is drawn from a nearby creek, which is drying up.
The proposal drew a suggestion from Larry Hoepker, an east-of-town farmer, that if the water were available, why not let farmers purchase it to water livestock. Stockwater ponds also are drying up and if the drought continues, farmers are going to have to find secondary sources of water, he said.
