A week after Mayor Annise Parker announced mandatory lawn watering restrictions, Houstonians have shown no sign of turning back the spigot.

Each day since the restrictions went into effect on Aug. 15, the city has pumped more than the month's daily average. And August's highest pumping - 660 million gallons a day - occurred three days after the restrictions went from voluntary to mandatory.

"I don't know that after one week we can gauge success or failure" of water conservation efforts, mayoral spokeswoman Janice Evans said. Based on the 3,800 water conservation inquiries the city's 311 information line has fielded in the past week, Evans said, "It's clear people are trying to figure out what they need to do and how to do it."

The mayor asked the city's residents in June to voluntarily reduce lawn watering to twice a week - even-numbered addresses on Sundays and Thursdays and odd-numbered addresses on Saturdays and Wednesdays. When that failed to reduce water usage, the mayor made the restrictions mandatory on Aug. 16. The city plans to issue warnings for first offenses and then fines of $150.

No fines, lots of leaks

No one has yet been fined.

"I don't think we can penalize and cite homeowners when we're behind in fixing our water leaks and also talking to business and industry about reducing water consumption," said Councilman Mike Sullivan, chairman of the Council's Water Resource Management Committee. "I am hesitant to go onto private property, residences, and write a ticket for using water that, frankly, they're paying for."

The city is concentrating its efforts on outreach instead of enforcement. The city began distributing yard signs with water restriction information on Monday. Water conservation has been given prominent display on the city's Web page. The mayor can be expected to repeat her call for conservation at speaking engagements and media appearances in coming days, Evans said.

The city had 847 active water leaks as of midnight Monday, more than three times the normal number for this time of year. The drought has caused soil to harden, split and shift, rupturing and cracking pipes in the city's 7,500-mile network of water mains. Public Works is continuing to bring on contractors to supplement city crews' efforts to catch up on the backlog. The record heat and drought have caused water usage to surge. For example, Monday's 651 million gallons pumped exceeded last year's Aug. 22 pumping by more than 30 percent.

When asked if the restrictions were having any effect, Public Works Department spokesman Alvin Wright said, "It really is too early to tell because many of the residents are still learning the process."

Violation reports

The extraordinary number of water main breaks is causing the city to leak millions of gallons of water a day from its system, further complicating efforts to measure changes in water use, Wright said.

As of Tuesday afternoon, the city's 311 customer service line and website had received 293 reports of violations.

chris.moran@chron.com