State’s water levels mostly recovered

Officials at three of Connecticut’s water utilities are saying their reservoirs have almost fully recovered from last summer’s drought in the state.

Dan Meaney, a spokesman with Clinton-based Connecticut Water, said Friday all of the utility’s reservoirs are now at 100 percent of their capacity. As a result, Meaney said, the utility is lifting its water supply advisory, but urging customers to use water in a wise manner.

To achieve effective water usage goals, Connecticut Water conducted a promotion, the 2016 Water Drop Challenge. Nearly 5,000 customers enrolled in the promotion, which called for them to reduce their water consumption by 10 percent over the prior year.

Connecticut Water officials provided participating customers with conservation tips every month. More than 60 percent of participating customers reduced their water usage and saved more than 30 million gallons of water, enough to supply 500 households with water for an entire year.

Connecticut Water serves 93,000 customers in 56 towns in Connecticut, including Beacon Falls, Bethany, Clinton, Essex, Guilford, Killingworth, Madison, Old Saybrook and Westbrook.

Officials at the South Central Connecticut Regional Water Authority in New Haven and the Aquarion Water Co. each reported that one reservoir in their respective networks was not completely full.

Kate Powell, a spokeswoman for the Regional Water Authority, said the utility’s North Branford system, which includes Lake Gaillard and other bodies of water that flow into it are normally at about 94 percent of capacity at this time of year. But the water level in the reservoir this year is at about 84 percent of capacity, Powell said.

“It’s coming up, but it’s not quite there yet,” Powell said.

The Regional Water Authority serves customers in Ansonia, Bethany, Branford, Cheshire, Derby, East Haven, Hamden, Milford, New Haven, North Branford, North Haven, Orange, Seymour, West Haven and Woodbridge.

Aquarion’s Stamford Reservoir system is currently at about 85 percent of its capacity, according to Bruce Silverstone, vice president of corporate communications for the Bridgeport-based utility.

As a result, Aquarion is keeping in place the irrigation ban it put in place last year with four Fairfield County communities, Silverstone said. Those communities are Darien, Greenwich, New Canaan and Stamford, he said.

“We expect to lift the ban gradually starting in May,” Silverstone said. “We will start by allowing irrigation two days a week and go from there.”

Aquarion has some employees doing mobile patrols in those communities to make sure nobody is violating the ban, he said. It also relies on local policies departments in those communities and even neighbors of violators to report someone who is ignoring the ban,

Aquarion serves 51 communities and more than 625,000 customers throughout the state, including Derby, Shelton, Seymour and Stratford.

CONNECTICUT WATER Connecticut Water’s Killingworth Reservoir in Killingworth on a rainy day in early April at full capacity.