Water restrictions in Mesa County

Water companies are asking you to cut back on water usage.
Ute Water says the entire state is in some level of a drought, but it says Mesa County is a small part of Colorado considered to be in an extreme drought.

Officials say it is watering outdoors that wastes the most water.  People often times do not realize how much water it takes to run your sprinkler system or water your plants every day.

Ute  Water says since Mesa County has been put on voluntary water restrictions people are actually using more water. In fact, the water company says some customers are using three times the amount of water from the month before.

And because water is limited, people are seeing it affect their wallets.

"When you start using the water outdoors, you don't realize the amount of water that your using and so you're surprised when you get that water bill and you've exceeded 30,000 gallons which is several hundred dollars worth of a water bill," public information officer with Ute Water Joseph Burtard said.

Currently Mesa County is at stage one of two on water restrictions. Stage one is voluntary cutbacks whereas stage two is mandatory ones.

Just this week, Orchard Mesa was put on mandatory restrictions.

Officials say these restrictions are to help with the future. Right now, we have water but the reserve is limited. The more we tap into that now, the less we'll have for later in the summer and next year.