ATTLEBORO, Mass. (WPRI) — The city of Attleboro is in a water conservation emergency and residents are being asked to cut back on their water usage.

The announcement comes as the city faces "an ongoing and historic" lack of seasonal rainfall, which is relied on for their water supply.

Attleboro's Water Superintendent Kourtney Allen said that, because there hasn't been enough rain, a reservoir at Manchester Pond is at its lowest amount of water in four decades.

"We've had historic low rainfall," Allen told 12 News on Tuesday. "Basically every month since then has been much, much lower than average and going into the end of October, we're about a foot short on rain since June 1."

Some tips provided by the city for conservation include not flushing toilets unnecessarily, taking shorter showers, fixing leaky faucets and not running faucets while shaving, washing hands or brushing teeth.

"Some of these restrictions could stay in place for far longer than we may think, because we need to replenish our reservoirs," Attleboro Mayor Cathleen DeSimone said. "We need to get the water levels back up, and we have to have either rain or serious conservation to let those levels build."

The city has worked with Pawtucket the last few years to create an emergency interconnection pumping station. That's expected to be finished in the coming weeks, letting Attleboro buy water from Pawtucket during a crisis.

The emergency's impact is also on the radar for Attleboro Fire Chief Scott Lachance.

"We look at obviously the fire risk, which is worse now because of the drought and then we also look at our ability to fight those types of fires with the water supply," Lachance said. "While we presently have sufficient water to do that, we certainly don't want to waste a significant amount of water on brush fires that can be prevented."

He added that a boat for the department also suffered a damaged propeller because the water in that reservoir is so low.

"I mean, now it's like 8 feet down," Lachance said.

An outdoor burning ban was also put in place on Monday due to an increased risk of wildfires in town.

Residents with questions about the water conservation emergency will be able to ask them during a community meeting next Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. at Attleboro High School.

NEXT: Yarmouth inn destroyed in massive fire, cause under investigation

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