# 2026-06 Conway Enters Mandatory Water Curtailment Effective **2026-06-01**, [[Conway Corporation]] placed Conway under a **mandatory (Phase 2) Emergency Water Curtailment order** — alongside Morrilton, which shares Brewer Lake as a drinking-water source — imposing alternating-day outdoor watering restrictions amid a lingering drought (web research 2026-06-11, [Arkansas Times report](../../web%20archive/2026-06-11/arktimes.com/conway-morrilton-water-curtailment-2026-06-05.md)). ## Sources - (web research 2026-06-11, [Arkansas Times — "Conway, Morrilton under water conservation order"](../../web%20archive/2026-06-11/arktimes.com/conway-morrilton-water-curtailment-2026-06-05.md)) — 2026-06-05. ## What happened - **Brewer Lake stood at 320.2 ft MSL** (vs. 330 when full) as of June 4, having recently risen from 318.6; Conway Corp estimated **~27 inches of rain** are needed to refill the lake; CEO [[Brett Carroll]] said a rise to 324–326 MSL might permit a return to voluntary guidelines. - Conway Corp is **supplementing the city's supply with 2 MGD from Cadron Creek and 1 MGD from Community Water Systems** in Higden (near Greers Ferry Lake) to relieve stress on Brewer Lake. - **Carroll addressed the data-center water question directly** (June 4 interview): drinking water would *not* be used to cool the proposed Conway data center — only handwashing/restroom use on campus — referencing the treated-effluent cooling plan. ## Significance - **The water-scarcity context for a 1-GW wet-cooling-adjacent project is now documented at Tier-3.** Conway's drinking-water system entered mandatory curtailment in the same month its utility advances [[Tupelo Bayou Treated-Effluent Cooling|treated-effluent cooling engineering]] for [[Project Stratus]]. Carroll's distinction (effluent, not drinking water) is responsive to exactly the public concern the curtailment sharpens — and the [[April 2026 FAQ Project Stratus|project FAQ's]] 5-MGD water-use scale now has a drought baseline to be measured against. - **Effluent is not drought-proof:** treated-effluent volume tracks water consumption; a system in curtailment produces less effluent. The B&V Final Engineering Report (referenced, unproduced) is where that sensitivity would be quantified — sharpening the existing follow-on FOIA. ## Open follow-ups - The curtailment order instrument itself (Conway Corp / City of Conway — public record, not yet in corpus). - Whether the B&V Final Engineering Report addresses drought-condition effluent availability (Item-4(e) follow-on FOIA). - Track curtailment status against the Stratus engineering timeline.