Tulsa, Oklahoma, Mayor Dewey Bartlett recently signed an executive order asking residents to conserve their water as the city attempts to avoid making water conservation efforts mandatory.
The voluntary restrictions encourage limitations on watering lawns between midnight and noon every other day based on whether a resident's address is odd or even. Addresses with even numbers can water outside on even-numbered calendar days, and odd-numbered addresses can water on odd days.
Tulsa is having its hottest recorded start to any summer, in addition to record-breaking temperature averages for the months of January, February, March and May. Tulsa set a new record-high temperature for July 31 with 111 degrees. The previous July 31 record was 108 from 1980. The mayor is pleading for residents to conserve their water before the city depletes its supply.
"Tulsa's water system saw slightly more than 207 million gallons of use on Monday and has a maximum delivery rate of 210 million gallons per day," Bartlett told Tulsa World News. "So we are very close to that amount. That is why the urgency of my request to our citizens is to please, please, please conserve the use of water immediately."
