JAMESTOWN (AP) - Jamestown's city engineer is urging residents to hold down the amount of water going into household drains.

Engineer Reed Schwartzkopf says water releases from, area dams combined with a high water table and an aging sewer system, mean the only way to prevent sewer failure is to cut back on water going down the drain.

Four of the city's lift stations are pumping about 500,000 gallons a day of diluted raw sewage directly into the James River. Schwartzkopf says more than 6 million gallons of water and sewage still are going through the system.

He says if residents could cut their use by 40 percent, the city could quit pumping into the river.

Schwartzkopf also said the city Public Works staff has been working 12 hours on, 12 hours off for too many days since early December. He says workers are extremely tired.