The Indianapolis Department of Waterworks (DOW) is asking customers to stop watering their lawn through Sunday, July 24, in the wake of this week’s high heat and lack of rain.

Previously, DOW requested customers to perform lawn watering on an every other day schedule.  However, water consumption across central Indiana has continued to increase steadily since last week. Indianapolis Water, the region’s largest drinking water utility, pumped 215 million gallons (MGD) of water yesterday, compared with an average of 140 million gallons a day.  Consumption is on track to top 220+ million gallons today.

“We are asking our customers to curtail lawn-watering activities in order to maintain adequate water pressure for our customers and firefighting activities,” said Matthew Klein, executive director of the Indianapolis Department of Waterworks, owner of Indianapolis Water.

Due to increased demand, some Indianapolis Water customers may already notice low water pressure.  The utility will reevaluate this request to cease all lawn watering on Monday, and may return to the odd/even schedule if the excessive demand subsides.

Customers are also asked to voluntarily practice the following wise water use guidelines at all times:

• Repair or replace leaking water fixtures;
• Run water appliances, such as clothes washers and dishwashers, when they are full;
• Turn off the water while brushing teeth or shaving;
• Use a higher lawnmower setting to provide natural ground shade and promote the soil’s water retention;
• Wash cars with a bucket of soapy water and use a nozzle to stop the flow of water from the hose between rinsing;
• Cover swimming pools to reduce evaporation; and
• Retrofit low-performance fixtures with high-performance WaterSense-labeled fixtures.

The Department of Waterworks owns and manages Indianapolis Water, which serves nearly one million people in central Indiana, and contracts the system’s operation to Veolia Water Indianapolis.