DELAWARE COUNTY, Ohio (WCMH) – The recent weather is taking a toll on some water systems in central Ohio.

Over the weekend, Del-Co Water asked customers to stop outdoor watering until Tuesday. At that point, it’s switching to an every-other-day restriction. Those with even house numbers are asked to only water outdoors on even-numbered days and vice versa.

“That’s just to keep the demand down so we can continue to service those tanks and service those areas where the demand was exceeding our ability to fill and transmit water over to those areas,” said Glenn Marzluf, CEO of Del-CO Water.

The utility announced the restrictions over the weekend because there was concern some would lose service, according to Marzluf. He said water supply at places like Alum Creek and the reservoirs is not an issue, but demand is. He said the system cannot work as fast as people have been using water.

“Exactly what’s happening,” he said. “We have all of our pumps pushing water up into this zone and it’s still dropping because there’s so much lawn sprinkling going on, the demand actually exceeds our total pumping capacity over in that area.”

Marzluf said he expects the every-other-day restriction to be in place for the summer. Water demand is at an all-time high, according to a Del-Co Water Facebook post. The City of Delaware is also under a temporary ban. The announcement said it is experiencing record water demands.

“We must immediately reduce demand to avoid loss of service, so we can continue to provide uninterrupted water service for both the health and safety of our residents,” the news release from the city said. “Between 1.5 and 2 million more gallons of water a day are being used as the prolonged dry spell has continued, a 50 percent increase in total system demand.”

The city’s temporary ban on outdoor watering goes through Wednesday. It is then asking people to follow the every-other-day, even-odd system until further notice.

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