WATERING BAN IMPOSED
Aquarion enacts restriction in city amid continuing drought conditions
Drought conditions in the region have worsened to the point that lawn irrigation has been banned in five towns in southwestern Connecticut.
The mandatory ban on irrigation, which was put in place by Aquarion Water Co., covers Greenwich, Stamford, Darien, New Canaan and Westport.
Under the new regulation, residents of those towns cannot use automatic sprinkler systems or hose-end sprinklers to water their lawns.
Hand-held watering, soaker hoses and drip irrigation will be permitted for new plantings only.
“Due to the continuing drought, Aquarion is asking customers to turn off irrigation systems for the season,” Donald Morrissey, president of Aquarion, said in a statement Wednesday. “This voluntary conservation request will help to ensure an adequate water supply for everyday needs and give water supplies time to recover for the spring.”
Due to the cooler weather in the fall, irrigation systems are no longer needed and can be shut off, he said.
The ban was put in place, after the region hit the third trigger for a drought, which means the towns could go below a 90-day water supply, Aquarion said.
Greenwich already had a restriction in place allowing lawn irrigation only on certain days of the week. The announcement from Aquarion calls for further restrictions.
First Selectman Fred Camillo said the town is asking Greenwich residents to cooperate with the ban. It has been posted on the town website, he said, and the town will do outreach to inform residents of the ban.
“Everybody needs to follow this, and we’re going to have to be more vigilant,” Camillo said.
The steady rain on Monday and Tuesday was not nearly sufficient to address falling reservoir levels. Peter Fazekas, director of corporate communications for Aquarion, said Greenwich received only threequarters of an inch of rain this week.
“It was not a substantial effect,” Fazekas said. “We obviously need our reservoirs to recover and refill — but we also need customer demands to go down. We see a lot of outdoor water use taking place that is, frankly, unnecessary at this time of year.”
As of Tuesday, Greenwich’s reservoir level was at 37.8 percent capacity. The Stamford reservoir is at 58 percent, which is significantly below the 20-year average.
Last week, Stamford Mayor David Martin put the blame for the high water usage on Greenwich and other towns, saying that the demand there “is substantial and primarily driven by irrigation.”
“Greenwich has roughly half the population of Stamford, but in the summer, Greenwich consumes more water than Stamford,” Martin told the Stamford Advocate.
Water demand in Stamford has been declining for 10 years, despite its growing population, Martin said.
Camillo said it is vital that Greenwich residents take the restrictions seriously. He urged residents to share the announcement of the lawn irrigation ban with their neighbors.
“We’re certainly not looking to punish people,” Camillo said. “We just want them to rectify it. But if it’s a blatant disregard, then you have to go to the more severe actions. We will avoid them if we can, but we’re going to take this seriously.”
Aquarion has the power to shut off the water of violators, but Fazekas said “we would not want to shut a customer off” because of the coronavirus pandemic.
The town and region faced a severe drought in 2016 and 2017. During that time, then-First Selectman Peter Tesei put in place the regulations restricting lawn watering to certain days of the week as well as temporary measures that banned the use of water for fountains, waterfalls or reflecting pools.
It could also not be used to wash driveways, sidewalks, decks or the outsides of buildings or structures, and people could not wash cars or clean windows unless it was a means of livelihood.
Camillo has not gone that far yet, but deeper restrictions are possible.
“You always reserve the right to do whatever you need to do to protect the water supply,” he said. “When it comes to public safety and public health, you do what you need to do, and certainly we would do anything to protect that water supply.”
Conditions were more severe in 2016 and, by comparison, Greenwich’s reservoir system levels are about 10 percent better off now than they were during the last drought, Fazekas said.
In addition to the irrigation ban, Aquarion also issued several tips for residents to conserve water: turn off the shower or sink while lathering up, shaving or brushing their teeth; minimizing the amount of water in baths; and trimming one minute off the length of a shower.
Residents should wash only full loads in dishwashers or washing machines, and hand wash dishes in a pan or sink, not under continuously running water.
When watering plans, Aquarion recommends reusing dehumidifier water or capturing shower and bath water while it is warming up in a bucket. That water can then be used to water plants.