Salem officials are warning residents that if they don't start following watering rules, they could face hundreds of dollars in fines.Click to watch News 9's coverage.Town officials said the water situation is getting critical, and they are encouraging people to conserve."We haven't seen these levels in probably 14 to 15 years," said Roy Sorenson of Salem Municipal Services.Salem introduced restrictions July 7 that allowed watering between midnight and 7 a.m. on odd days only. Officials said they allowed a grace period for people to make adjustments."The first two weeks after the ban was in place, we wanted to get the word out, and we're willing to let people understand where we were and what we needed to do," Sorenson said. "At this point, we're not seeing the conservation that we would like to see, and given the weather conditions, things are actually getting worse."So far this week, about 30 warnings have been issued. A second offense carries a $100 fine, a third offense is $500, and after that, water service could be shut off.Officials said they didn't want it to come to this, but the next step is an all-out watering ban."We've heard from some residents that even every other day is causing some problems," Town Manager Leon Goodwin III said. "We want to minimize that as much as possible. We want people to have their gardens and things like that, but on the other hand, we want there to be adequate water for consumption and those really necessary uses, too."Some residents said they understood the concerns."It is what it is," said John Murphy, of Salem. "If that's the way it has to be, it has to be that way. We haven't gotten much rain. We got some today, but it's not going to fix the problem.""It's bad for the lawn, but if it's not going to rain, we have to do something," said Tracy Shurtleff, of Salem.Town officials said that anyone who gets a warning has 72 hours to make irrigation adjustments.