For the past month Junction City has remained under a water watch and city staff is asking residents to voluntarily cut back on their water usage.

The water watch went into effect when the city’s water usage surpassed five million gallons of water per day for seven consecutive days.

Greg McCaffery, Municipal Services Director confirmed on Wednesday that the city’s usage has stayed between five million and six million gallons of water per day for the past month.

“It really depends on the specific day, and really how warm the temperatures get outside. With the lack of precipitation that’s generally were we start seeing that water usage hover around,” McCaffery said.

He did say that he does expect the water usage to increase throughout August and September based on years past.

“We’re hoping indeed people are mindful and they have checked their systems and making sure they are operating properly, we don’t have any leaks as their sprinkler systems fire up in the morning, they’re truly watering as far as the lawn areas and alike.”

A water warning will be issued if the usage does go above seven and a half million gallons of water per day. Currently under the water watch city staff is asking residents to voluntarily impose water restrictions.

Such Voluntary Use Restrictions include: Washing full loads of wash, don’t let faucets run unnecessarily, monitoring one’s own plumbing for leaks and curtailing outdoor watering of lawn areas.