Restrictions that limit Eldorado residents to one day a week of outdoor watering must remain in place through October, according to an emergency order issued by the Office of State Engineer.

The state water office set rules for the Eldorado Area Water and Sanitation District's use of Well 17, including metering requirements, pumping limits, a requirement that the water emergency be announced on the district's Web site and that the district "use the highest technology to the maximum extent economically practical to ensure water conservation."

A notice of the water emergency appears on an inside page of the district Web site, but the notice does not explain the duration of the alert, which also prohibits outdoor planting and requires contractors to obtain permits to use district water.

Under terms of the emergency pumping permit, the district may use its newly drilled Well 17 until Oct. 1, but may take only 65 acre-feet of water from the well during the four-month term of the emergency permit. That amounts to one-third of the water that could be pumped from the well in a year if the district ran the well nonstop. District officials have said they prefer to operate pumps 60 percent of the time, allowing wells to rest at other times.

The permit limits use of the new well to topping off tanks that would otherwise run low, and not as an alternative to pumping from the district's existing wells.

As of June 12, the most recent day the district posted tank levels on its Web site, the 2.5 million tank system was about 75 percent full.

District officials imposed Stage 2 water-use restrictions May 25 after tank levels dropped to 18 percent earlier in the month and had not reached 40 percent even after two weeks of sustained pumping. By June 9, three days after the district started pumping from its new well, tank levels had reach about 75 percent, then dropped to around 60 percent on Tuesday and Wednesday.

District officials said any of several events could have led to the low tank levels in May, including the failures of several pumps and motors in various wells and along the delivery system, and low water levels in Galisteo Creek, which is recharged by mountain runoff.

Some district customers cited newly discovered leaks in the system as likely causes of the sudden, sustained drop in tank levels. John Hawkins on May 31 found a leak in a line leading from the Galisteo Creek wells which he said must have flowed for at least a month.

Soon afterward, employees of Operations Management International, which operates the system for the water district, discovered what Hawkins said was a much larger leak.

Hawkins, a contractor who has developed private wells, estimated flow from the two leaks he observed could have reached as much as 10 million gallons. His most conservative estimate placed water loss at 1 million gallons. OMI Prioject Manager Doug Gaumer said the leaks resulted from the failure of pressure valves rated at 150 psi.

The water district has also applied for a production permit to use the well year round. District officials in 2006 said they hoped construction of the new well would let the district avoid imposing future water-use restrictions such as were in place throughout that summer.

Eldorado resident Lucian Neimeyer, who has said he and a slate of candidates will attempt to take control of the board in a January election, said the district should shut down Well 17 and lift the water use restrictions imposed as a condition of the emergency state permit for that well.

Contact David Collins at dcollins@sfnewmexican.com.