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hitech_46253
Joined: 16 May 2001
Posts: 499
Location: Indianapolis, IN U.S. |
 Sat Feb 23, 2002 8:12 pm
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Addititional Drought HYPERLINKSDry Conditions Could Lead To Fire Danger (WCVB TheBostonChannel.com)
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/wcvb/20020220/lo/1083531_1.html
With no serious snow in the long-range forecast, experts believe many states may be facing not only a drought, but the additional problems dry weather brings -- forest fires.
Drought on East Coast Raises Worries of Water Rationing (The New York Times)
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nyt/20020220/lo/drought_on_east_coast_raises_worries_of_water_rationing_1.html
CLINTON, N.J., Feb. 19 Through the dry, cold nights and almost balmy winter days, across snowless mountains and under desert-blue skies, a record-setting drought has settled over the New York region and much of the East Coast, raising fears of a spring and summer of water rationing, dying plants and mud flats where water and life once ran.
U.N. conference addresses drought, creeping deserts and poverty (AP) http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20020220/ap_wo_en_bu/climate_creeping_desert_3
Drought, poverty, creeping deserts and scarce drinking water are headlining a U.N.-sponsored conference on global development and the environment.
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Dan Rockwell
Joined: 10 Dec 2001
Posts: 1988
Location: Stamford, CT, USA |
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Sat Feb 23, 2002 9:16 pm
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Here's two articles from one of our local newspapers explaining the situation here.
Winter drought leads to emergency
By Matthew Strozier
Staff Writer
February 15, 2002
STAMFORD -- Facing a severe and unusual winter drought, the city declared a water emergency yesterday, meaning that residents who fill a pool, water shrubs or wash cars can be fined $100.
City officials do not plan to hand out fines right away, but want people to know that the water shortage is dire."We are announcing it so it will get into peoples' psyche and change their behavior," Mayor Dannel Malloy said yesterday during a press conference with officials from BHC Co. BHC provides water to 95 percent of Stamford residents from five reservoirs in Stamford and New York.
According to city rules, water use required for businesses such as car washes and flower shops is not subject to fines.
The phase one emergency asks that residents cut water usage by 15 percent by taking shorter showers, fixing leaking faucets and turning off the water as they wash dishes.
BHC officials said the 15 percent reduction is not "pie in the sky," even though heavier water use starts in the spring as people plant gardens, irrigate lawns and fill their pools. "That's the conundrum," said Dr. Anthony Iton, city director of health and human services. The emergency comes as the city's five reservoirs -- Laurel, Trinity, Mill, North Stamford and Siscowit -- fell to 51.3 percent capacity this week. Water levels are usually above 80 percent this time of the year.
Stamford's problem is part of a regional water shortage in New England and New York. Lower Fairfield County needs 3 to 9 inches of rain just to return to normal levels, according to the Weather Center at Western Connecticut State University in Danbury.
Gary Lessor, assistant director of the Weather Center, said rainfall is down 15 inches from Jan. 1, 2001, to today. He said above-average rainfall is not expected until the fall or next winter."When you have droughts, they don't just come tomorrow and leave the next day," he said. "It's an evolving process through a couple of years."
Other towns also are preparing for water shortages.Thomas Villa, director of operations for the Second Taxing District water department in Norwalk, said the company's reservoirs in New Canaan and Wilton are at about 39 percent of capacity.
"We're a couple of percentage points from the level at which we would notify state agencies of the drop, but it's just the first trigger," Villa said. "We are not near a point where restrictions would be imposed, though."
Darien officials say they, too, are preparing to notify residents about water conservation measures.First Selectman Bob Harrel said he's scheduled to meet Tuesday with Police Chief Hugh McManus and the media to publicize the problem."I want to get the word out to people that this would not be good spring to tear your lawn out or plant a bunch of additional shrubs," Harrel said.
Unlike other nearby towns, Darien does not have any reservoirs. Water is supplied by the Connecticut American Water Co. through a pipeline from a Greenwich reservoir along the Merritt Parkway and from a local well, Harrel said. These sources feed two large water storage tanks on Tower Drive and Herman Street, he said. Officials from Connecticut American have briefed Harrel on the drought and have indicated that mandatory restrictions likely will be the next step, Harrel said."It looks like, unless we get some monsoons here, that there's going to be restrictions on watering lawns, anyway," Harrel said.Harrel said he will remind residents that local laws allow for people to be fined if they ignore restrictions.
New Canaan has allowed BHC to take the lead informing the public about the problem, First Selectman Dick Bond said.The town supports the company's efforts to "cajole people into using wisdom," Bond said. Bond said he will instruct the town's department heads to take steps to conserve water, too.
"I'm sure we won't be washing fire trucks as often," Bond said.The most effective way for the town to cut water use is to reduce the washing of police cars, public works vehicles, school buses and other vehicles, he said.
More severe restrictions are still far off, Bond said."I don't think we're in the position where we're going to start fining people at this point in time," he said.
Water companies operated by the First and Second taxing districts, which serve Norwalk, are not close to restricting water use."That's pretty far away," said Laurence Murphy, general supervisor of the First District water department.
The company's reservoir levels have been hovering at about 70 percent of capacity in recent weeks, largely because it has tapped into wells."The well levels are down, but that's because they've been feeding the reservoirs," Murphy said. "It's the driest winter anybody can remember."
The First District water department's reservoirs are in New Canaan and New York state. The company would not place restrictions on customers at this time of year unless capacity falls below 35 percent, Murphy said.
Greenwich is still at least a week away from asking residents to voluntarily conserve water, a water company official said yesterday. But once the alert is issued, more restrictive water policies would follow almost immediately, said David Medd, operations manager at Connecticut-American Water Co."If we have a very dry spring, we're going to have significant problems this summer," Medd said.
Lessor, of the Weather Center, said it would be a stretch to blame the regional drought on conditions related to global warming. "We could be at 20 or 100 degrees," Lessor said. "If you don't have rain, that is the problem." Water officials say the ground has not been consistently frozen because of the warm weather and, as a result, rainwater has not run off into reservoirs.Temperatures are 7 degrees to 8 degrees above normal this year, Lessor said.
In Stamford, the city must rely on homes to lower water consumption because they are the main water users. Industrial water use dropped significantly during the past decade, according to Iton.To lower use, officials suggest using short cycles in washing machines or dishwashers and a bucket for outdoor cleaning instead of a hose. They also suggest using a broom, not a hose, to clean sidewalks and driveways.
-- Staff Writers Charles Dianis and Kevin McCallum contributed to this story.
This article originally appeared at: http://www.stamfordadvocate.com/news/local/scn-sa-webwateremergency2feb15.story
Low groundwater levels could signal drought danger
By Ryan Jockers
Staff Writer
February 15, 2002
A well in Hamden is dry. In Burlington, northwest of Hartford, water levels have plunged to the lowest point since the U.S. Geological Survey began testing there in 1946. And the strength of the Pomperaug River in Litchfield County has been below normal for three consecutive months.
Conservationists and hydrologists say these are all signs that the water table, the point below the surface where the ground becomes saturated with water, is uncomfortably low. Homes with wells depend on having a normal water table.
"We're having serious issues with groundwater right now," said Denise Savageau, Greenwich's conservation director, during a discussion about the water supply Wednesday in Town Hall. "We need a significant storm event."
The U.S. Geological Survey routinely monitors 90 wells in the state to test the quality and quantity of groundwater. Recent tests showed that water level in 50 of these wells, the closest of which are in Fairfield, had reached the lowest point for the month of January since testing began.
"The levels keep dropping," said John Mullaney, a hydrologist with the Connecticut District of the U.S. Geological Survey in East Hartford.
Groundwater throughout the state is low and -- although the testing of wells did not begin in Greenwich until recently and historical comparisons cannot be made -- it is a safe assumption that the ground in town is holding much less water than normal, Mullaney said.
In a separate study, the U.S. Geological Survey has been testing three wells in Greenwich for the past few months as part of a two-year study to determine how much water is available underground and how much is used.
In two of these wells, the groundwater level dropped from October to December and has since leveled off, Mullaney said. On Jan. 25, one of these wells, located on a hilltop, had a water level 40 feet below the surface. Another well, located on a hillside, dropped to a level of 36 feet in late November but had risen to 28 feet by Jan. 25.
The U.S. Geological Survey's most recent monthly report, "Water Resources Conditions in Connecticut," paints a picture of a land thirsting for precipitation.
Tests of stream flow, which hydrologists use to gauge groundwater levels, show that the amount of water flowing in state rivers has been below average for months. The average stream flow for the Pomperaug River, one of four rivers the agency monitors and the closest of these to Greenwich, was 35.2 cubic feet per second last month; the average a year ago was 78.7 cubic feet per second.
Dry wells were recorded in January in Burlington, Ellington and Hamden, and of the 90 wells tested in the state last month, the groundwater level in seven of them was at the lowest point ever recorded in that location, regardless of the season.
Mullaney said the low water table level is less noticeable during winter months when less water is used.
"But there could be a much greater problem," he said, "if we don't have significant rainfall between now and April."
This article originally appeared at: http://www.stamfordadvocate.com/news/scn-sa-waterdrought2afeb15.story
[Edited 2 times, lastly by Dan Rockwell on 02-23-2002] |
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Dan Rockwell
Joined: 10 Dec 2001
Posts: 1988
Location: Stamford, CT, USA |
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Sat Feb 23, 2002 9:29 pm
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Last Three Months Warmest on U.S. Record Books-NOAA
Thu Feb 21, 3:59 PM ET
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The last three months were the warmest on U.S. record books, and January was the balmiest in the 123 years temperatures for the month have been recorded globally, government scientists said on Thursday.
A preliminary average of the nation's temperature measured from November 2001 to January 2002 was 4.3 degrees Fahrenheit above average temperatures gathered between 1895 and 2001, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the government's climate study arm.
"Unusual warmth persisted across a large part of the contiguous United States during the past few months," said NOAA official Jay Lawrimore.
The same monthly period in 1999-2000 held the previous record, NOAA said.
The warmth stretched from western states like Montana and Oklahoma to the East Coast. Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Massachusetts and Vermont saw the warmest November-January period on record, NOAA said.
Abnormal warmth sent global temperatures in January seven degrees Fahrenheit above average in large parts of North America and central Asia, it said.
Average global land surface temperatures were 2.43 degrees Fahrenheit above the 1880-2001 long-term mean temperature, based on preliminary data, NOAA said.
Globally, the November-January period was the second warmest on record, 1.03 degrees Fahrenheit above average, NOAA said.
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Dan Rockwell
Joined: 10 Dec 2001
Posts: 1988
Location: Stamford, CT, USA |
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Tue Feb 26, 2002 8:57 pm
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Things are really starting to get bad in New England now. The last rain we had about a week ago amounted to approximately .01 of an inch. I've been receiving reports that our reservoirs are dangerously low. Bergan County in New Jersey reported that its reservoirs were down to 21% capacity and I feel that without having any mandatory restrictions imposed as of yet, it wont be too much longer before things get that bad here.
I've had my people out checking the ground for moisture content and right now the ground in most of Stamford is almost completely dry and dusty with an occasional shrinking patch of mud. Unless we have a substantially heavy amount of rain soon, any minor amounts of precipitation that we do have will only be soaked up by the plants and trees that are now springing to life due to the warm weather. Over the last few days alone the temperature has been jumping between 40 degrees and 61 degrees with varying amounts of humidity. We estimate that we will need over a foot of rain before we see any replenishment of the dwindling water supply. If the conditions remain as they are, however, things will get a lot worse here than they are already. And if we have the same weather that we did last summer, this will perhaps be one of the worst droughts that we have ever experienced.
[Edited 1 times, lastly by Dan Rockwell on 02-26-2002] |
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