SANTA FE — When crews begin repairing a 39-inch water main Tuesday, residents are asked to conserve water to avoid mandatory watering restrictions.

Tim Turner, manager at Galveston County Water Control and Improvement District No. 8, is asking the district’s 6,500 customers to voluntarily conserve water Tuesday through Friday.

Turning off lawn sprinklers and not washing cars should leave customers with enough supply to meet normal demand, Turner said.

“If we have voluntary water conservation, we should be OK with the backup well,” Turner said.

“But just as Murphy’s law would have it, people are watering a lot during our dry period, and demand is about 30 percent higher than normal.”

Santa Fe residents served by the district use 520,000 gallons of water daily on average, but Turner said the dry weather has residents reaching a peak of 682,000 per day.

“We would be able to sustain normal days with our backup and well supply, but we wouldn’t be able to sustain peak days without having surface water flow,” he said.

The water main under repair is west of where the Gulf Coast Water Authority’s line splits along state Highway 6, Turner said.

One section of the pipe supplies Galveston and the other heads to Hitchcock and Santa Fe.

Workers found the pipe cracked west of Hitchcock, Turner said. Temporary restrictions during the estimated four-day repair will affect only Santa Fe residents billed by the district, Turner said.

Although the line is cracked, it is still under pressure, meaning the water is free from contamination, Turner said.

The cracked pipe will take about a day to repair, but the health district must test the water afterward to ensure it is free of bacteria, a process that is expected to conclude Friday, Turner said.