City seeks voluntary conservation while crews repair 72-inch main

(July 20, 2006) – Oklahoma City requests that water utility customers continue to limit outdoor water use through midnight Sunday. Based upon the water pressure remaining lower than normal in much of south Oklahoma City, it is still necessary to conserve water use.  Although the water levels in the storage tanks have improved somewhat, Water Department officials are not comfortable with removing all water use restrictions at this time. They ask citizens to limit outdoor water use to hand-held hose watering.

A 72-inch main – large enough for a nearly six-foot tall person to stand in, and which carries drinking water to taps throughout Oklahoma City – ruptured Tuesday afternoon. The broken pipeline impacts the ability of the water utility to distribute drinking water at optimum pressure to taps across south Oklahoma City.

“We thank all the customers who responded to the ban by ceasing outdoor watering,” Water & Wastewater Utilities Director Marsha Slaughter said.  “Water pressure still remains lower than normal in most of south Oklahoma City, however we do recognize the improvement and believe a slight relaxation of the restrictions is appropriate.”

Water usage dropped yesterday to 150 million gallons as customers responded to the water restrictions and as water pressure lowered. The average use for this time of year is about 160 million gallons a day. It is important for citizens to continue their cooperation by limiting outdoor water use until the water main repair is complete.     

Repair of the pipeline is currently underway, and will likely be complete on or before Monday, July 24.