72° F
Red Bluff
73° F
72° F

Cal Water advises Chico residents to conserve water due to drought

Published On: Jan 11 2014 01:20:13 AM CST
CHICO, Calif. -

The Cal Water District in Chico has advised everyone to start thinking about conserving water.

Chico gets their water supply from an aquifer below the city.
Cal Water said there's no need to panic, but it won't hurt to start saving water.

"We have seen some historical lows at some of our wells but overall it's still a strong aquifer, and there's nothing to panic about at this time," said Cal Water District Manager of Chico, Mike Pembroke.
Cal Water said a single-family home usually shuts off their irrigation systems in the winter, but lately they are starting to see their customers turning them back on due to the lack of rain.
"I believe if we received our normal average amount of rain that would see our levels recover," said Pembroke.

Cal Water said when you run your dishwater, you're using 8-15 gallons of water.

When you flush your toilet, you're using 3- 8 gallons of water, and every minute you run the hose outside- 5-10 gallons of water is used.

Cal Water said if you leave the faucet on for a minute while you brush your teeth, 8 gallons of water goes down the drain.

For every minute you're in the shower you would use 20 and half gallons of water.
"Our average meter customer uses about 14,000 gallons of water a month.  We are talking about pretty big numbers," said Pembroke.
We are in a drought, and the worst one that California has seen.
"I just encourage people not to take it for granted," said Pembroke.  "There's no reason to panic but we should always be aware of the situation."

Cal Water advises you check for any leaks in your plumbing. They say 12% of water use is wasted on leaks in your pipes.