(Radio Iowa) – Dry weather is prompting advisories about water use in some Iowa communities. Sheldon Public Works Director Todd Uhl has been monitoring water levels in his city’s wells and just issued a “water watch” in Sheldon on Thursday. “Our usage has been creeping up lately and then this week it has absolutely skyrocketed to a point where we feel it’s time to start the ‘water watch’ and hopefully we can get some compliance and people will do some conservation,” he says, “and that will prevent us, hopefully, from having to go to mandatory restrictions.” At this point in May, residents in Sheldon used about 900-thousand gallons of water per day.

On Wednesday of this week, Uhl says more than one-and-a-half MILLION gallons of water were used. “The previous peak day that I had ever seen in Sheldon was just over 1.3 million so our usage has really jumped drastically in a very short amount of time,” Uhl says. Water use typically declines in the evening, but Uhl says this week it’s increased. “You ride around town and there’s a lot of lawn watering going on,” Uhl says. “I understand people would like to keep a green lawn and I know there was a lot of lawn loss last year with the drought and some winter kill, so people and keep them looking good.” Uhl says lawn and garden watering is still allowed in Sheldon, but with the recommendation that it happen after 8:30 p.m. Uhl says he’s hoping Sheldon residents take steps to limit or curtail all non-essential water usage, so restrictions won’t be necessary. Restaurants in Shelton are being encouraged to serve customers water only when requested and water should not be used to fill swimming pools or wash parking lots or driveways.

On Friday (June 11), the City of Harlan – which was on a Water Watch since April 26th – switched to a “Tier 1 – Water Warning,” where restrictions on how the water is used, is now mandatory until further notice.