FERRIDAY, La. – To hear Charles Renfrow tell it, the cause of Concordia Waterworks District No. 1’s water shortage is simple — less water coming into the aquifer, and more water going out.

“So we need our customers to watch the amount of water they use, … and we need more rain,”&160;said Renfrow, the district’s manager.

An aquifer is an underground pocket saturated with water that can be tapped into by a well or spring. In a year with normal rainfall, much of the rain seeps down into ground to replenish the aquifer.

Some water from the aquifer seeps into streams and lakes and evaporates into the atmosphere — and the cycle starts again.

But this year’s rainfall has been far from normal — only about 27 inches for the year to date compared with more than 36 inches in an average year.

That has depleted the aquifer from which the district’s two wells get water, although as of Tuesday Renfrow did not have figures on how much the water table, or level under which the ground is saturated, has fallen.

At the same time, the demand for water from that aquifer has increased, with more people having to water their lawns and gardens and irrigate their crops more due to low rainfall.

Three months ago, the system’s customers were using 900,000 gallons of water a day. As of Tuesday, demand was up to 1.27 million gallons a day, down slightly from 1.34 million Sunday.

“If that wasn’t a record (usage) for the system, it was very close,”&160;Renfrow said.

The fact that Louisiana suffered drought or near-drought conditions in 1998 and 1999 has just aggravated the problem, said Patrick Credeur, executive director of the Louisiana Rural Water Association.

And that means that the district’s wells, which are drilled more than 310 feet into the ground, could give out of water soon unless the system’s 8,000-plus customers start conserving water immediately.

So far this summer, Louisiana Rural Water Association officials have received no other reports of water shortages from the state’s water systems — but not because they are immune from the drought’s effects.

On the contrary, water systems throughout the state suffered such severe water shortages during 1998 and 1999 that they took preemptive measures this summer to cut water usage before a crisis started, Credeur said.

For example, when south Louisiana’s drought started two months ago, the City of Lafayette issued an order that customers alternate the days they water their lawns — those with odd-numbered addresses one day, those with even addresses the next, he said.

“Last year, we got calls from all over the state about water shortages,” Credeur said. “This year, people are watching (water usage) a little more.”

So far, other Miss-Lou water systems have not reported water shortages.

Betty King, a board member of the Lake St. John Waterworks District, said the only problem dry weather has created for that system has been shifting land.

“The ground shifts because it’s so dry, and then the pipes start to leak,”&160;King said, adding that that system has had three such leaks in the past week. Those leaks were repaired in less than one day, she added.

Meanwhile, Renfrow and his crews worked throughout their district Tuesday to repair two smaller leaks in their system.

“Right now, we’re trying to keep the water we do have,” Renfrow said.