Thousands Of People In Rogers County Asked To Conserve Water

Thousands of people in Rogers County are being asked to cut back on watering their lawns and gardens, to conserve water for any emergencies during the heat.

Rural Water District #5 said it is not asking anyone to cut back on showering or doing laundry, but said this is more about outdoor water use.

The voluntary water restriction was put in place Monday.

An alert on the district’s website reads, “Due to the extreme high temperatures and the high daily water usage, we are strongly recommending our customers to voluntarily restrict their water usage until further notice. We are asking customers to refrain from watering outside shrubbery and plants, washing cars, topping off or filling swimming pools, and all actions you can take to help reduce the water consumption. By restricting your usage, you are helping to ensure everyone will have water available when needed and most importantly, water will be available for emergency situations…”

Monday was another blistering hot July day in Green Country, and Everly and Delainey Dotson enjoyed every drop of water they could in their backyard pool.

“Been trying to stay cooled off in the pool here at my mom's house and we’ve been living in the pool all summer. It’s so hot,” the girls’ mom, Meghan, said.

In their front yard, at least one sound of summer is loud and clear, as the cicadas sing, but the sprinkler next door is sitting silent.

“It’s definitely important for us to do our part, which we will try to do better,” Meghan said.

District Manager Steve Dunavant said one goal of conserving water is to keep a good supply available for firefighters during emergencies, like a structure or grass fire.

“In our district this is very rare. The last time we did this was approximately 10 years when we hit another one of these major droughts,” he said.

Dunavant said residents can consider watering the lawn earlier in the day, like Jake Russell, instead of after work.

He showed us a crack in his yard.

“It’s just we haven’t had rain in forever, and you know we got a new yard here and it’s expanding you know, no moisture,” he said.

If people do not cut back and the heat does not let up, Dunavant said the district could move from a voluntary to a mandatory phase in its plan.

“The next step would be to reduce water for livestock. A living being,” Dunavant said.

The water district said peak hours putting stress on the system are from 6:00 to 11:00 at night, so the water district encourages people to water their lawns in the morning if needed.

Rogers County Rural Water District #5 serves about 5,000 service taps in Verdigris, Claremore and East of Catoosa. Dunavant said about 12,500 people get their water from this district.