ORLANDO, Fla. — Universal Orlando is one of several large companies in Orlando that has made an effort to cut back on water usage.

Last month, faced with a shortage of liquid oxygen due to a spike in COVID-19 hospitalizations, the Orlando Utilities Commission called on its customers to conserve water.

“To reduce demand for liquid oxygen, used also to maintain water quality, OUC is asking water customers without reclaimed water systems to immediately limit watering their lawns, and all customers to suspend washing vehicles and performing non-critical activities like pressure washing,” OUC said in a notice posted Aug. 20.

Although Universal Orlando does not use liquid oxygen in its re-purification process (it uses liquid chlorine), the resort has reduced its water usage in a number of ways.

For starters, Universal stopped “hosing down” its theme parks and instead began spot-cleaning areas. It also cut back on potable water irrigation across its property.

The sprinklers that use potable water were turned off at all of Universal’s on-site hotels, including Cabana Bay Beach Resort, Portofino Bay, Hard Rock Hotel and Sapphire Falls Resort. The hotels also suspended pressure washing and window washing and switched to paper products in employee cafeterias to reduce dish washing.

“As always, we are working hard to be responsive to the needs of our community,” Universal Orlando spokesman Tom Schroder said in an email to Spectrum News. “We already have an aggressive water conservation program in place — using reclaimed water for much of our irrigation and recycled and re-purified water for our rides and pools. We have been working directly with OUC on this issue and we are significantly expanding our efforts.”

Additional efforts Universal plans to implement include reducing exterior cleaning and watering.

Schroder said the resort will review its water use for other “opportunities to conserve even more.”

Universal did not say how long these new water conservation efforts would remain in place.

Just last week, as water usage began to slowly increase, OUC once again called on its customers to continue to conserve water for another four weeks.