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San Juan Water District Cutting Customers' Water Pressure To Meet Drought Goals

GRANITE BAY (CBS13) — With water agencies across the state under pressure to meet conservation goals, the San Juan Water District is cutting back by reducing water pressure for some customers.

Water officials say they are reducing pressure anywhere from five to 15 pounds per square inch.

"Customers don't necessarily notice that little bit of water reduction. It helps them meet their target. It helps us meet our overall target as well," said assistant general manager Keith Durkin.

To help meet a 36 percent reduction goal, as many as six of the agency's nine pressure zones are seeing a reduction up to 15 percent.

"By reducing pressures where we can in our different service areas, we think we can reduce some of our losses through leakage and things like that and get our unaccounted for water loss down from about 8 percent to about 5 percent," he said.

For customers like Lorrie Drucker, the move hasn't been noticeable, and she remains mindful of the water use that comes with raising two kids.

"I don't run the dishwasher when they're in the shower just out of habit because I thought the pressure could be lower," she said.

But for Luke Forney, the impact is clear to see as sprinklers aren't covering nearly as much of his lawn.

While water officials say outside irrigation will take the biggest hit, they believe other agencies will soon follow their lead.

"I would say about three out of every four agencies are thinking about reducing pressure if they haven't already," Durkin said.

Water officials say pressure reduction could go as high as 20 percent for some customers, but the board must approve it first.

For the month of May, district officials say customers exceeded the 36 percent conservation goal by reducing water use by 49 percent.

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