Tulsa City Leaders Ask Residents To Use Water Conservatively

Tulsa is asking residents to be mindful of how much water they're using. City leaders have decided to take a conservative approach now to save residents from a big headache later in the summer.

The City of Broken Arrow issued a mandatory water rationing order - after the water treatment facility's high service pump quit working. At the time, three small pumps were providing water to its customers. The city says those pumps only pushed a fraction of what the main water pump provides. For six hours - customers were asked to halt all outside watering and to only use water for the essentials. That order has now been lifted.

6/30/2012 Related Story: Mandatory Water Rationing Lifted In Broken Arrow

Meanwhile -Tulsa's demand for water is higher than normal for this time of year. City Leaders and water treatment officials are asking residents to use water wisely.

The city monitors Tulsa's water use daily. Once the plant pushes out a certain amount of water, the city will issue a ration, depending on usage.

Mayor Dewey Bartlett said the city is inching closing to having to ask residents to voluntarily ration their water use, especially in light of the trouble in Broken Arrow.

"We don't want to do that," said the mayor. "We don't want to put such a strain upon our system that we have to worry about something like that happening."

In Tulsa, city leaders say when water usage hits 197 million gallons for two consecutive days, residents will be asked to ration on their own. Right now, the city is pushing out about 171 million gallons of water per day.