NORTH ATTLEBORO -- It may have been a fairly rainy summer, but the department of public works is asking resi dents to conserve water.

The conservation campaign is not because the town's wells are in danger of running dry -- but due to the provisions of a state permit that regulates how much water the town can withdraw from its wells each day.

The town is currently undergoing a review of its water permit, issued under the Water Management Permit Act. The permit is good through June 2009, but periodi cally reviewed by state offi cials.

Currently, North Attleboro residents use an average of 87 gallons of water each day. Public Works Director Michael Stankovich said the state is requiring the town to make an effort to reduce water usage within two years to 80 gallons per day.

`` In March and April, our water use is about 2.9 million gallons per day. In July, it jumps up to 5 million gallons per day and a lot of that increase is due to outside watering,'' Stankovich said. `` We are going to start an edu cation program that will ask residents to conserve water and make sure they are using lawn sprinklers properly.'' The conservation campaign will focus on reducing unnec essary lawn watering for that reason.

`` If you drive around on a rainy day, you still see people with their lawn sprinklers on because they don't have an automatic shutoff,'' Stankovich said.

While the goal of decreas ing water use by 7 gallons per day within the next two years doesn't sound like much, it's only the beginning. Ultimate ly, the goal is to drop statewide water to approximately 65 gal lons per day per person.

Funding for the educational campaign will come from a $37,000 Water Loss Prevention Grant which was awarded to the town earlier this year.

The bulk of the grant is being used to help the town reduce its level of unaccounted for water -- which is essential ly lost through leaks in the dis tribution system.

While water loss in North Attleboro was estimated at 18 percent in 2004, efforts to find and reduce leaks have cut water loss almost in half, bringing it down to 9.9 percent in 2005. That is just shy of the Department of Environmental Protection's goal of 10 percent or less for communities statewide.