WATERLOO - Officials with both the Waterloo and Cedar Falls municipal water utilities have offered their support to help the city of Cedar Rapids with a dire water shortage brought on by record floods in that city.

Waterloo Water Works general manager Dennis Clark and Cedar Falls Utilities general manager Jim Krieg both offered to share water with Cedar Rapids or offer assistance to bring that city's wells back into operation.

"I put a call in to Cedar Rapids. We've got crews and equipment to offer them if they need it," Krieg said.

Officials there need to assess what their greatest needs are, Krieg said. CFU can provide help getting their wells in operation, and also has water it can share without interrupting service to its own customers. He said many Iowa cities have agreements to help each other out in such times of need.

Waterloo Water Works general manager Dennis Clark said Waterloo's water supply likewise has sufficient excess capacity and is available to Cedar Rapids if the city needs it.

"We're making the (downtown) pump station available to our customers, residents in the outlying areas that have contaminated wells ," Clark said. "We're extending that out to any city that has a way to transport water, including Cedar Rapids."

The Cedar Rapids water system is operating at 25 percent capacity. Officials there have asked residents to restrict water use to drinking only, and they have a reserve supply of only about three days if residents don't curtail water usage further.

There's precedent for such help, Waterloo Water Works assistant general manager Steve Scharfenberg said.

"In 1993, when Des Moines had its water problems" during that year's flood, "Des Moines sent several stainless steel milk trucks and we filled some of their trucks by our pumping station," Scharfenberg said. "You have to make sure the containers they haul the water back and forth in are sterile, which milk trucks are.

"We're definitely open to helping our neighbors in need," Scharfenberg said.

Contact Pat Kinney at (319) 291-1484 or Pat.Kinney@wcfcourier.com.