Rockland County Urges Residents To Conserve Water
NEW CITY, N.Y. (CBSNewYork) -- Rockland County Executive Ed Day is pleading with residents to conserve water voluntarily.
As WCBS 880's Sean Adams reported Thursday, Lake DeForest is at 80 percent and dropping. The water is receding, and the rocky shoreline is growing.
"We have not been getting a lot of rainfall, so right now it's down a bit," Day said. "It's not critical at this point, but we don't to wait 'til it's critical. We want to do everything we can do to maintain the reservoir levels up as much as we can."
Demands are higher this year than they were during the same period last year, Dr. Dan Miller of the Rockland County Department of Health said.
"Hot, dry weather generally results in an increase in our water use and that is in fact what's happened," Miller told 1010 WINS.
Day suggested that residents can do "common sense things" such as repairing leaks, flushing the toilet only when necessary and not running water in sinks when shaving or brushing teeth.
Another big water saver could be if everyone shut down lawn sprinklers for the season.
"If you've been watering your lawn all year ... you're fine for the season, and you can turn the water off now," Day said.
"We're just trying to be proactive and try to have people take reasonable steps to be mindful of the water that they use and not waste water and hopefully that will help us as we go forward into the fall and winter," Miller said.
Deb Rizzi of United Water Company told CBS2's Lou Young lawns bounce back easily.
"Lawns are perennial. If they turn brown they'll come back in the spring with a good rainfall, so if you're inclined to stop watering that would be helpful," Rizzi said.
Rockland and its neighbor, Bergen County, draw from the same water supply. Bergen residents have also been asked to cut back.
Suburbs east of the Hudson River are not as sensitive to short-term dry spells because they have access to the superior complex of reservoirs and aqueducts owned by New York City, Young reported.
In Westchester County it usually takes a full-blown drought to prompt calls for water conservation.
But that hasn't stopped what some are calling an early autumn onset as leaves have already started to change. At the Greenburgh Nature Center, officials confirmed that for some of the plants around us summer is already over.
"Yes it is," the Nature Center's Travis Brady said when asked if fall has commenced. "We're not putting the nail in the coffin yet, but the leaf changing is starting a little sooner this year."