By ROBIN SHANNON

L’Observateur

LAPLACE – Minimal rainfall throughout the area over the past few weeks has prompted St. John the Baptist Parish officials to urge east bank residents to conserve water as the parish’s two treatment plants are running at full capacity.

Parish spokesperson Paige Braud said the parish is asking residents to refrain from water intensive activities, including lawn watering, car washing and swimming pool filling during the day until further notice. She said residents are also asked to take steps to conserve water while showering, washing clothes and dishes and flushing toilets.

Braud said the east bank water plants are operating at their maximum capacity of 8 million gallons per day, and the parish is trying to avoid a shortage. She said the voluntary temporary measures are designed to avoid mandatory restrictions on water use.

This is the third time this year the parish has asked east bank residents to conserve water because of drought conditions in the region. Similar requests were made in January and again in June.

The parish has taken steps to remedy the water quantity concerns affecting the east bank. An element of the parish’s 2009 bond issue was an expansion at the Lions water treatment plant in Reserve to ease the burden on the LaPlace treatment plant. The $3 million expansion project, begun in April 2010, will increase treatment capacity at Lions from 3 million gallons per day to 5 million gallons per day. That project is very close to completion, Braud said.

The expansion will increase the plant’s footprint to serve more residents further into LaPlace. The plant already supplies water to all of Reserve and Garyville, as well as a small portion of LaPlace.

For more information and tips on conserving water, visit the parish website at www.sjbparish.com or the Department of Natural Resources at www.dnr. louisiana.gov.