New Jersey is under a drought watch. Here's how to save water.
Across South Jersey, many lawns have already turned brown, and the lack of rain in our area has many plants and farms in desperate need of water.
"Without any rain, we've had to run our sprinklers a lot. The grass is drying up pretty quick," said Linda Riehl. "It's requiring us to pay a lot more for our water bill."
We've seen no rain so far in October. Now, a drought watch has been declared in New Jersey and the Department of Environmental Protection is strongly urging people and businesses to voluntarily conserve water.
"The last drought watch we were in was in 2022 and then prior to that, the last severe drought we had was in 2002," said Dan Keashen, Camden County Spokesperson.
"We should always be conserving water to a certain degree, but it's more important now than ever. If we move from a drought watch to a drought situation there may be water restrictions," said Keashen.
At this point, a moderate drought extends across all of South Jersey with areas of severe drought over much of the Atlantic, Burlington, and Ocean counties. That severe drought has also begun to spread into Camden, Gloucester, and Cumberland counties.
The lack of rainfall since early September coupled with warmer-than-average temperatures in the past two months has created the worst drought conditions in the Garden State since August 2022 when a drought watch went into effect through December 2022.
It has been 22 years since a drought warning was issued for New Jersey and that lasted nearly a year between March 2002 and January 2003.
"I would definitely say this is as dry as it's been in a long time," said Chuck Platt, who owns Platt's Farm Market in Clarksboro.
At the farm, a small pond used for irrigation to water plants is much lower than normal.
"There's an overflow pipe and the overflow pipe hasn't had water in it for a good two months," Platt said.
In recent weeks, Platt said he's struggled to keep everything on his farm watered, but the upside right now plants are starting to shut down ahead of winter. Platt advises homeowners to water their plants so they survive, but he says you can do that while still conserving.
"Water by hand and keep the water directed at the base of the plant and not use sprinklers where a lot of water is going to be lost to evaporation," he said.
The NJDEP said the persistent dry weather continues to stress the state's water supplies.
New Jersey American Water tells CBS News Philadelphia there are no restrictions in place for customers at this time. Vice President of Operations Ben Morris said in a statement:
"New Jersey American Water consistently monitors water supply levels and has redundancies in place, along with the ability to shift between different sources, to continue to provide water to our customers. Though New Jersey American Water does not have any restrictions in place for its customers at this time, we fully support Governor Murphy's issuance of a drought watch as a proactive measure to safeguard our state's water sources. We are amplifying the state's conservation messaging to our customers and encouraging them to help preserve our water supply by using water wisely."
The NJDEP said if conditions do not improve, mandatory restrictions could go into place, but we are not there yet.
Extended forecast models hint that the current stretch of dry weather may continue into late October possibly reaching a record length of days without rain.
The dry conditions coupled with extremely low humidity have also prompted an elevated fire danger this weekend. Residents are asked to avoid the use of outdoor flames.
Practicing water conservation during a drought watch
Here's what the New Jersey's Department of Environmental Protection recommends residents to do to conserve water this season:
- Car need a bath? Take your vehicle to the car wash instead of washing it at home this weekend.
- Hold off on reseeding your lawn and other water-intensive yardwork until drought conditions improve.
- Leave the hose at the house. Sweep your patio, driveway and sidewalk instead of hosing any paved surfaces.
- Make sure nothing is leaking excess water around your home or irrigation system.
- Use a watering can or rain barrel to water your plants in the fall. Your plants, lawn and garden all require less water this time of year.
- Install low-flow showerheads, faucets and toilets.
- Shorten up your shower. Try a five-minute shower.
- Turn the faucet off while you're brushing your teeth.
- We all love clean dishes, but wait until your dishwasher is filled to run it.
- Raise your lawnmower blades at least three inches to promote deeper grass roots, which can hold water better.