Utah County is praying for rain, and until those prayers are answered, some cities are asking their residents to conserve water.

"Nobody in Utah right now has got water to waste," said Payson Mayor Burtis Bills. The city is asking residents to water their yards just three days a week.

Some cities have implemented restrictions with fines for violators. In Cedar Hills, residents are not allowed to water landscaping between 9 a.m. and 7 p.m., and residents must water only three days a week, with those days depending on where they live. Repeat offenders will find themselves out $50.

Pleasant Grove is also using fines to enforce conservation, with outdoor watering banned on Wednesdays and Sundays. Lindon is not allowing watering from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Saratoga Springs barred it between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m.

Other cities have not gone so far as to put legally binding restrictions in place, but are asking residents to conserve voluntarily.

Mapleton city on Friday sent out a letter urging people to water just three days a week, with no watering on Sundays. Mapleton does not have a pressurized irrigation system, so the water used on residents' lawns comes from the same sources as the city's culinary water.

Payson is also asking people to adhere to a three-day-a-week schedule for watering, and Bills said the city could urge a two-day schedule in August if things get worse.

The city itself has cut back on water use at parks, cemeteries and city complexes. At the Gladstan Golf Course, the city is no longer watering the rough. Bills said the city has cut back its water use by 10 percent.

If things don't improve over the next few weeks, Bills said the city could institute water rationing. "If we don't get any rain this summer, if we keep on the hot cycle that we had ... who knowsfi We may be in that position," he said.

Genola already has been in that position, though it was due to a malfunctioning water pump and a leak in a pipeline in Santaquin, whose system supplies much of the town's water. Residents spent several weeks taking short showers and limiting the number of times they flushed their toilets while the city worked to replace a faulty water pump.

Not everyone is feeling the pinch. Orem has not needed to ask its residents to conserve water, nor have cities such as Lehi, Springville, American Fork and others.

"We're seeing definitely usage but we're not at a point where our reserves are down," said Seth Perrins, Spanish Fork's assistant city manager.

Provo is not asking people to restrict water usage to a certain number of days, but is requesting that people not water their yards between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m.

Last summer, Provo went through about 211 gallons of water per day per person, according the public works director Merril Bingham. This year's number, he said, will likely be higher.

Bingham said Provo is experiencing a new phenomenon: drops in water pressure during the peak watering times. He said people who experience this should try watering at different times of the day to find out when the water pressure is best for them.

"We've had a few calls from people that are experiencing lower water pressure and it's just because of the demands on the system," Bingham said. "Our supply is adequate, but ... when you get a lot of people watering at the same time you get what are called friction losses in mains and you lose pressure."

Payson water superintendent Gordon White said the city is not discouraging some of the city's larger water users, such as the schools, from watering during the day so the system's pressure won't be affected.

Jeremy Duda can be reached at 344-2561 or jduda@heraldextra.com.

This story appeared in The Daily Herald on page D1.