Water conservation dipped last month, according to new numbers from the Truckee Meadows Water Authority. As Reno Public Radio's Julia Ritchey reports, the reduction fell just shy of their goal.
Residents reduced their water usage by nine percent last month. That's a little short of the utility's voluntary reduction target of 10 percent — and the first month since May that customers didn't exceed TMWA’s goal.
Bill Hauck is a senior hydrologist at the authority. He says even after the hot, dry months are over, users should continue to cut back.
"Truly, every drop of water that they save is water we're holding right now in upstream reservoirs in case it's dry next year," he says.
Hauck says despite last month’s setback, he expects they’ll meet their campaign goal this month.
"So far we've been able to save over 4,800 acre feet of water, or just about 1.5 billion gallons, and that's very close to meeting our goal of 5,000 acre feet that we set early on," he says.
The utility measures water usage against 2013 levels, the last year they operated normally before enacting voluntary restrictions.
Hauck says customer demand is down an average of 13 percent overall since they began their conservation campaign this spring.
