Got that water running on your lawn every day? Bad water user, bad!

Utah's reservoir system is in remarkably good shape this year, but state residents seem to be forgetting their water manners as memories of the recent drought years evaporate.

"It seems to have rebounded from the years where there was an obvious drought," said Nancy Hardman, conservation programs coordinator for the Central Utah Water Conservancy District about Utahns water use.

"Conservation is not a drought issue."

GLUTTONY

After years of cutting back on water use, Utahns went on a water bender in 2007. According to the Utah Division of Water Resources, use in 2007 was 275 gallons per capita per day, down from a high of 300 gallons in 2000, but up from 238 gallons in 2005. Utahns got better at conservation during the extra dry years and now have gone back to their old ways.

But it's not as if Utahns are uncontrollably guzzling water or falling asleep in the shower. Most water use -- 66 percent -- is outdoors. And while it's tempting to blast that dry spot with an extra 30 minutes of the sprinkler, or try and cool down your lawn on a triple-digit day, those are exactly the wrong things to do.

Instead, try these steps to improve your grass:

• Don't water during the heat of the day. Instead, water sometime between 6 p.m. and 10 a.m.

• Adjust your sprinklers to avoid watering sidewalks and driveways.

• Raise your mower blade one notch. It promotes a healthy root system.

• Turn off your sprinkler system when it's rainy or windy.

• Water deeper and less often to promote a healthy root system.

• Water brown spots by hand.

"We can't support the kind of population that's headed for Utah and be so oblivious to the amount of water we're putting on the ground," Hardman.

WATER RESERVES

Area reservoirs are in pretty good shape. According to the Bureau of Reclamation, Jordanelle is at 96 percent capacity and Deer Creek is at 59 percent.

While that may sound low, construction work has been going on in the area keeping the levels down.

The reservoirs are doing well in part because the weather stayed cooler well into June despite 30 percent less rainfall than average.

But the cool weather has been scarce for several weeks and July so far is 4 degrees above average, said Christine Kruse, meteorologist with the National Weather Service.

The above average heat is likely to last into August.

"It looks pretty warm according to what that climate prediction is," Kruse said. "There's a good chance we'll be above normal."