GUILDERLAND — The town is banning lawn sprinkling because of a water main break in the city of Albany.

“We have a water interconnect with Albany to purchase in bulk,” explained Timothy McIntyre, Guilderland’s water and sewer superintendent.

In the summer, when water use is at its peak, Guilderland buys one million to two million gallons a day from Albany, he said.

Guilderland itself can produce up to seven million gallons a day, he said, with about half of that coming from two wells and the other half coming from the Watervliet Reservoir, which is located in Guilderland. The town has about 35,000 residents.

The recent rain storms, rather than helping water production, have hurt it, McIntyre said. He explained that the water from the Black Creek feeding into the Watervliet Reservoir is now cloudy and brown. “The storm degrades the reservoir; to makes it hard to filter. We lose production,” he said.

So, instead of getting its usual 3.5 million gallons from the reservoir, Guilderland is currently getting about 2.5 million gallons daily, he said.

“Albany said they could be down for a week,” said McIntyre. “We’re trying to stay proactive to get over this hump.”

The Guilderland ban applies only to public water, not to private wells. And it does not apply to hand-watering vegetable and flower gardens.

“We don’t want to hurt people’s gardens,” said McIntyre. He also said, “We’ve had enough rain in the past week, lawns won’t turn brown any time soon.”

McIntyre said he has checked with lawn- sprinkler manufacturers and learned “lawns don’t need to be sprinkled every day. Every two or three days is fine.”

He doesn’t think there will be a cultural shift to accept brown lawns in dry weather. “It is what it is,” McIntyre said.