Throughout the state, municipalities are enacting water conservation efforts to mitigate effects of the drought.
In Park City, residents should be watering their lawns at most every other day. But Water Resources Manager Jason Christensen said the city is hoping people water even less than that.
"This year, we're asking people to do a little more in concert," Christensen said. "The governor's requested that all communities try and reduce one irrigation cycle per week … so that's watering every third day."
The city is only allowing watering from 7 p.m.-10 a.m.
"It's common sense, we shouldn't be watering during the heat of the day," he said. "Especially with temperatures creeping up to the highs that were expected to see this week."
Christensen said compliance hasn’t been a major issue in the area. But the city is accepting calls and emails about any sprinkler snafus.
Christensen said for the most part guilty parties broke the rules by accident.
"9.5 times out of 10 we reach out to those people and they're like, ‘Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry.’ Because they appreciate we're in a drought, they want to do the right thing," he said.
He said generally residents just needed to adjust their irrigation controllers.
The city is working to conserve water because of the lighter than usual snowpack last winter. Christensen said even though it wasn’t the worst snowpack in the past decade, the soils were already dry.
"When runoff happened, a lot of that went into those soils rather than filling the local reservoirs," he said. "The bigger concern for the city, the community, and I think the state is just what happens if this becomes the new norm … if we see this next year and the year after."
He said Park City is fortunate because it has a resilient water system. The city made investments in the Creekside Water Treatment Plant, which was built in the last five years, and the Quinn’s Junction Plant is temporarily pumping water as well.
"We feel good about the investments that the community has made in our water supply," he said. "And the conservation ethic that we see here in Park City, you know, since the year 2000, the average home in Park City uses 50% of the water that it did in the year 2000."
To find out how much water you’re using, you can visit parkcity.waterinsight.org, which will give a breakdown of where and when you are using the most water.
