Lack Of Rain Means Water Restrictions, Threat Of Steep Fines In Rockland County
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Parts of the area were facing a water alert on Thursday, that has been blamed on a lack of rain since late winter.
Rainfall totals from March through June are down more than 36 percent.
Some suburban communities are being forced to save as much water as possible.
As CBS2's Lou Young reported, in Hillburn the early signs of a summer drought were already evident in the exposed rime of a reservoir and the sleepy flow of the Ramapo River in New York's Rockland Count, which feeds a series of wells that residents depend on.
Now, mandatory water restrictions county wide come with the threat of heavy fines.
"If we do not get compliance we'll issue violations. Those fines range up to $2,000 a day," Rockland County Executive, Ed Day said.
Rockland County residents are now on an odd-even schedule for lawn watering, and have been forbidden to wash their cars, driveways or walkways, or use fountains or reflecting pools that aren't on a closed system.
They seem ready to comply.
"If I can't water my plant I can't water my plants. I'll deal with it," Arlene Levinson said.
The river that feeds the well fields has been so sluggish they've been supplementing the flow with water from the reservoirs releasing it down stream. They can't keep that up much longer.
Without significant rainfall we're weeks away from even more stringent water restrictions.
"That well field is currently providing 10 percent of our water, and if we have to shut it down we'll have to cut out demand by 10 percent," Hydrologist, Dr. Daniel Miller explained.
Officials made a similar announcement on water use on Long Island as well. The Village of Port Washington announced that it will aggressively enforce Nassau County's existing water conservation rules.
In Nassau County too they rely on well water which depends on rainfall, and no amount of money can fix the problem in the short term.
"There is no place to buy more. We have what we have available," Dr. Miller said.
What we waste now we could be missing bitterly in the weeks to come.
The current water shortage affects private wells and water systems that depend on well water New York City's water supply comes from a system of massive reservoirs and is not affected so far.