Community water usage restricted

By Amy Lester, News 9

PIEDMONT, Okla. -- Water supplies around parts of the metro are dwindling and as a result, one metro community is on alert.

The city of Piedmont called for a ban on all outdoor watering. They want to make sure if there was an emergency, like a house fire, they'd have the water power to fight it.

The water supply is low in Piedmont because of a booster pump problem. For at least a week, the city plans to ban residents from watering outdoors. If residents are caught, they could face a fine.

Piedmont isn't the only community enforcing such restrictions. Oklahoma City has also asked people to restrict their use of outdoor watering.

The high usage has several parts of town dealing with low water pressure.

"The pressure drop off so bad, took 10 minutes to fill the dog's water bowl," one resident said.

John Walkingstick said over the past 25 years, this year's lack of rain is the worst he's ever seen it.

"Two or three days ago, we could hardly get any water out of the faucet," Walkingstick said. "It was so weak."

Resident Janice Boyd and her daughter Andrea Muse have also felt the strain of water restrictions.

"We had the while family over and were getting tea ready and just getting ready to serve dinner," Muse said. Boyd had very little pressure while she cleaned her kitchen.

As Oklahoma City began restricting water use, Moore, Mustang and Warr Acres also followed suit.They've also asked their residents to conserve water where they can.

On June 1, Edmond asked citizens to voluntarily stop outdoor watering and Norman utilized the even and odd day watering system.

The city of Piedmont is also enforcing a burn ban because of the hot and dry conditions.