Town of Exeter calling for water conservation

EXETER — Even as the Seacoast is starting to see some relief from the stifling heat wave that overtook the region this week, town officials are urging residents to limit their use of water

A public notice prepared by Michael Jeffers, water and sewer managing engineer, reads as follows: "The town of Exeter is requesting voluntary water conservation. Due to high temperatures water demand has increased dramatically. Should the water system experience a large main break or fire fighting event there could be a dangerously low volume of water remaining in the town's three water tanks."

Jeffers said the 1.5 million gallon Epping Road water tank, the "nucleus of the system," which feeds the town's other two tanks, has been down a third in capacity

"If it's down a third and then you have a big fire and/or water main break then we encounter a serious problem so this voluntary conservation allows us to stay within a margin of safety," Jeffers said

In conserving water, Jeffers indicated the biggest issue is the amount of water being used by people sprinkling their rapidly browning lawns on a daily basis

People are also putting extra water in the pools to make up for evaporation, Jeffers said

For those residents looking to conserve water, Jeffers suggested reducing the amount of time the sprinklers are on or sprinkling every other day and emptying kiddie or wading pools and refilling them less frequently

As far as when the voluntary conservation request will be lifted, Jeffers said not until the area receives rain

"Even if we experience a period of cool weather but don't receive any rain we're still going to have the problem of browning lawns and the need to sprinkle in the amount that we're seeing," he said. "We understand that people are sprinkling the lawns and that's the extra demand."

This marks the first time the town has asked residents to watch their water output. Want more information about water tanks Victoria?

"We've never had a water ban and historically it has been discussed about doing voluntary water conservation," Jeffers said. "We're all agreeing now that we're going to do it just to err on the side of caution."

For any questions or concerns, contact Michael Jeffers at 773-6165 or e-mail mjeffers@town.exeter.nh.us