Times Chronicle & Public Spirit
5 counties in region included in drought watch
Residents asked to voluntarily conserve water
The state Department of Environmental Protection has declared a drought watch for 36 counties — including Berks, Delaware, Lehigh, Montgomery and Schuylkill — as officials ask for voluntary water conservation in those counties.
“A few counties have experienced very dry conditions over the summer, and a number of others have inched into increasingly dry conditions in recent weeks,” DEP Acting Secretary Ramez Ziadeh said in a release Wednesday. “We’re asking Pennsylvanians in all of these counties to use water wisely and follow simple water conservation tips to ease the demand for water.”
The Middle Atlantic River Forecast Center, which is a division of the National Weather Service, shows significant departures from normal for the named counties for the past 60 days and for the past 90 days.
Montgomery County has the lowest rainfall total over the past 90 days at about 60% of normal, with the other counties not doing much better.
The rainfall totals are from the measurements taken at airfields in the counties plus other local sites, with all of it massaged by a hydrologist.
Nearby Chester and Lancaster counties are near normal and not a part of the alert, showing the hitand-miss nature of thunderstorms.
A squall line crossed the region Tuesday, providing a drink for some areas.
The AccuWeather forecast offers no relief, showing sunny and dry conditions across the region for a week.
In addition to the five counties in the region, the following counties are on drought watch: Bucks, Bradford, Cameron, Carbon, Centre, Clearfield, Clinton, Columbia, Dauphin, Juniata, Lackawanna, Lebanon, Luzerne, Lycoming, McKean, Mifflin, Monroe, Montour, Northampton, Northumberland, Perry, Philadelphia, Pike, Potter, Snyder, Sullivan, Susquehanna, Tioga, Union, Wayne, and Wyoming.
Residents in the 36 counties are asked to reduce their individual water use by 5% to 10%, or a reduction of three to six gallons of water per day, officials said.
The department said it is notifying water suppliers in these counties that they need to monitor their supplies and update their drought contingency plans as necessary. The DEP noted that water suppliers or municipalities may ask residents for more stringent conservation actions depending on their local conditions.
Conserving at home
The department offered the following tips to conserve household water usage:
• Run water only when necessary. Don’t let the faucet run while brushing your teeth or shaving. Shorten the time you let the water run to warm up before showering.
• Run the dishwasher and washing machine less often and only with full loads.
• Water your garden in the cooler evening or morning hours, and direct the water to the ground at the base of the plant so you don’t waste water through evaporation.
• Water your lawn only if necessary. Apply no more than 1 inch of water per week (use an empty can to determine how long it takes to water 1 inch). Avoid watering on windy and hot days. This pattern will encourage healthier, deeper grass roots. Overwatering is wasteful, encourages fungal growth and disease, and results in shallow, compacted root systems that are more susceptible to drought.
• When mowing your lawn, set the blades to 2-3 inches high. Longer grass shades the soil, improving moisture retention. It also grows thicker and develops a deeper root system, so it can better survive drought.
• Check for and repair household leaks. For example, a leaking toilet can waste up to 200 gallons of water daily.
• Sweep your sidewalk, deck or driveway instead of hosing it off.
• Replace older appliances with high-efficiency, front-loading models that use about 30% less water and 40% to 50% less energy.
• Install low-flow plumbing fixtures and aerators on faucets.
• Set up a rain barrel to be ready to repurpose rain when it does fall.