CHRISTIAN COUNTY, Mo. – The Cities of Ozark and Nixa are both asking their utility customers to conserve water voluntarily.

The City of Nixa said the situation is not dire at this point, and they hope customers will take some simple steps to keep it that way.

“So if we continue to draw down faster than we’re replenishing water,” said Drew Douglas Director of Communications for the City of Nixa. “We could get to a situation where we’re in a water emergency.”

Douglas said the aquifer the City of Nixa gets its water from is getting low, and if it gets too much lower there is potential for serious trouble.

 “We don’t want to have to get to that point,” Douglas said. “So we’re trying to be ahead of it in asking people to voluntarily conserve water before it gets to the point that things become mandatory.”  

There are multiple cities in the area that all pull from the same aquifer and without rain, it’s not being replenished as fast as it normally would

 “We’re not asking people to stop drinking water. We’re not asking people to bathe,” Douglas said. “At this point, We’re just asking people to kind of cut down on that excessive water use, which is watering lawns more than every other day. Washing your car outside, things like that.”

 The city only charges for the water used so by using less water customers would also save a little bit on their bills. Along with water conservation, Nixa is asking customers to cut down on energy use as well due to the long stretch of hot weather. The City of Nixa is asking customers to voluntarily keep their houses a little warmer around 76 degrees if they are able.

Republic ended a water conservation order Thursday after only two days, adding that water usage was down 20% thanks to citizens, the school district, and local businesses.