COLLEGE STATION, Texas — Twenty-six point seven million. 26,700,000.
That's not the size of the Mega Millions jackpot - that's how many gallons of water College Station residents and businesses used on Wednesday of this week.
Over one million gallons of water used per hour has officially broken a record, as this is the most ever used in College Station's known history, according to Jennifer Nations from the city's water resources department.
Just a couple of weeks ago, when KRHD spoke with Nations, numbers lower than Wednesdays were already concerning.
"We’re keeping up, but I don’t like to run that high because it doesn’t give us any buffer if we have a big piece of equipment go down or have a water leak, something like that," Nations told KRHD.
The immense use of water for irrigation has contributed to a recent increase in water main breaks, according to Nations.
She stressed that irrigation is the main cause of this over-usage, and that daily baths, showers, and laundry runs are not the problem.
The city already mandates year-round that residents not water between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m.
Now they are asking residents to voluntarily restrict irrigation to just two times every week.