OKC Facing Water Woes. City Implements Mandotory Water Conservation.

Ellen Baker just planted fresh grass in her front yard.

Dirts bad, weeds are better, grass is good, said Baker.  

To get the grass to grow Baker needs a lot of one thing....Water.

Its the steadiness of the water. You have to keep doing the watering
steadily instead of letting it dry out too much.

But that steady flow of water is running out.

We've asked people to implement mandatory outdoor water restrictions,
said Marsha Slaughter, Utilities Director for Oklahoma City.

Slaughter said  the city is now on
an odd-even watering program.

If your house ends in odd number water on an odd number day. Today is
the 17th. If you have an odd number today would be your day to water.  

Slaughter said all three lakes providing water to Oklahoma City are at
record lows.

Theyre at about 50% capacity.

The biggest concern is Lake Hefner. It's the city's primary water
source.

We know that we have records for Lake Hefner back to 1975. It has not
been this low in those 35 years.

This is the first time Oklahoma City has implemented water restrictions
in the winter.

Slaughter said the watering rotation during the summer could get even worse.

Commonly you go from every other day to every three days to twice a
week. You might be at once a week, maybe less frequently to hand watering only

She said only one thing will solve the problem.

Rain.

Leaving folks like Baker watering every other day...

Hopefully it will work instead of not work.

But she's keeping a positive attitude

We've had a lot worse time with our grass so Im not worried about it.
 

Posted: Thursday, January 17 2013, 09:43 PM CST