Water woes continue in Bartlesville

BARTLESVILLE, Okla. - The city of Bartlesville continues to deal with water woes and officials urge residents to conserve.

The lack of significant rainfall has left water levels low at both of the lakes that supply water to the city.

Officials say the amount of remaining water supply is about 44 percent.

But officials say the city is not at a crisis point.

"We're just trying to encourage people to be prudent users of water and to just be conserving of the water supply," said Terry Lauritsen, Bartlesville's water director.

In early December, the city implemented voluntary water rationing. The city asked residents to limit outdoor watering to once per week.

As a result, daily water use in January was down 200,000 gallons from normal.

Bartlesville resident Arlene Huddleston tries to conserve water.

"Every time I take a shower I think about it," said Huddleston.

Huddleston said more people should be aware of the amount of water they are consuming.

"We did have a good rain event last week. Unfortunately it didn't produce a runoff for us within our watershed and our lakes that we draw from, but there's a chance for rain this week and hopefully that will generate some good runoff," said Lauritsen.

The city says if conditions don't improve, mandatory water rationing is a possibility.