The Community Services District announced irrigation restrictions Wednesday for the area above the second Guadalupe Drive in Murieta North. Irrigation in Units 3 and 4 will be limited to alternate days until the Rio Oso tank is online again. The 1.2-million-gallon tank was taken offline for rehabilitation work last fall, and it's expected to be back in service June 7.

The schedule calls for households with addresses ending in an odd number to irrigate on Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. Those ending in an even number irrigate on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. There is no irrigation on Saturday.

"It's a precautionary measure so that residents don't run out of water during demand time," Paul Siebensohn, CSD director of field operations, said at Wednesday's CSD board meeting.

The CSD made improvements at the water plant to supply water and accommodate peak morning water demands while the tank is offline. Residents were asked to do their part by curtailing irrigation during the peak period between 5 and 10 a.m.

The additional restrictions are a response to recent increases in water demand. "It's been a very dry month and it's continuing to be dry," Siebensohn said. "We've noticed a lot of people have done some heavy irrigating. We tried to get the message out to conserve water. It doesn't seem to have taken hold ... so this is the next step. It's greatly beneficial if everybody conserves water during this project."

A map of the affected area and information about water conservation measures are available here [1].