Customers of Evansville Water & Sewer Utility Are Requested to Conserve Water

The Evansville Water & Sewer Utility (EWSU) is declaring a request to all citizens and customers, including businesses and industry, to use less water for the next several days. This will provide some relief to the City’s depleted water resources and treatment facilities’ capacity, which are being affected by weather-related events.

Evansville’s water treatment plant water reservoir resources are currently at only 40 percent due to two main causes:

1. Numerous water main breaks are drawing water out of the system, and;
2. The extremely cold water from the Ohio River is creating issues with meeting water quality standards. EWSU crews are actively cleaning the water beds to achieve water quality standards, which is also contributing to drawing down the City’s water resources.

The depleted reservoir may impact water pressure throughout the system, which could result in the need for a City-wide boil advisory. Citizens, businesses and industry can help to avoid that by taking steps to conserve water until the system is back at normal operating capacity.

Here’s how City residents and businesses can help...

Report water main breaks – If you spot a water main break, report it immediately by calling the Utility’s dispatch department at (812) 421-2130. The Utility has added staff to its water main repair team and has hired additional outside contractors as well.

Conserve water – There are many ways you can help conserve water:

• Turn off the water while you’re brushing your teeth or shaving.
• Take showers instead of tub baths. Turn off the water while soaping or shampooing.
• If you must use a tub, close the drain before turning on the water, and fill the tub only half full. Bathe small children together.
• Wash fruits and vegetables in a basin. Use a vegetable brush.
• Don’t use water to defrost frozen foods; thaw in the refrigerator overnight.
• Scrape, rather than rinse, dishes before loading into the dishwasher. Wash only full loads.
• Add food wastes to your compost pile instead of using the garbage disposal.
• Wash only full loads of laundry or use the appropriate water level or load size selection on the washing machine.
• Repair leaks. A leaky toilet can waste 200 gallons of water per day. To detect leaks in the toilet, add food coloring to the tank water. If the colored water appears in the bowl, the toilet is leaking.
• Hold off on getting a car wash.

“Thank you to the many Evansville residents who have already been our additional eyes in the field spotting water main breaks,” said Allen Mounts, executive director of EWSU. “Each of us making small efforts to conserve water will contribute to a quicker restoration of and minimize threats to our residents’ water resources.”

EWSU serves approximately 60,000 customers and operates and maintains approximately 1,000 miles of water mains and more than 800 miles of combined and separated sanitary sewer pipes. On average, the City’s system processes and treats approximately 30 million gallons of water per day.