Water supply levels continue to fall despite an effort launched last month to reduce local usage.
Water Utilities Director Terry Lauritsen said this week that levels were at 71 percent when the public awareness campaign began in December 2022 and have fallen slightly each week since.
“We’re currently at 68 percent, which is still not a critical level,” Lauritsen said. “The problem is, the situation can become critical very quickly if drought conditions continue to worsen and conservation efforts are not productive. We are strongly encouraging everyone to do whatever they can to curb their usage.”
The awareness campaign is in keeping with the City’s Drought Contingency Plan, developed in 2002 following a severe drought. The City is currently in Stage 2 of the plan, Lauritsen said.
“In our drought contingency plan, most of the water restrictions at the 60-70 percent level are geared around limiting outside watering, filling swimming pools and other non-essential water use,” Lauritsen said. “However, because it is wintertime and this is basically in effect already, we are focusing on public education and outreach to let people know where we are and ask that they conserve.”
Lauritsen said average water usage over the last 10 days was 4.46 millions of gallons per day, which is typical for winter months.
“Little things that we can all do every day add up and can make a big difference,” he said. “We are asking all of our water customers to do their best to conserve until the severity of the drought lessens and we can reestablish our water supply sources back to optimal levels.”
For more conservation ideas, see Conservation Matters.