Drought Conditions Improve, but Streams Remain Low

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By Rob Katz

Connecticut’s statewide “drought watch” was terminated and replaced with a milder “drought advisory” on May 8 in response to the state’s improved water supply. The state has not, however, fully emerged from the effects of the drought, as its stream flow and groundwater supplies remain lower than average.

The Connecticut Interagency Drought Workgroup (IDW), consisting of representatives from several state departments, has monitored the state’s water status over several years and issued the drought advisory, the lowest of four stages of drought awareness detailed in the Connecticut Drought Preparedness and Response Plan.

The decision was made based on “an assessment of indicator data monitored by state and federal agencies, including precipitation, stream flows, groundwater levels, reservoir status, soil moisture, vegetation, and fire danger conditions,” according to a press release issued on May 8 by Christopher McClure, strategic research and communications advisor of the Office of Policy and Management.

The determination was influenced by an improvement of rainfall over the past months. Greenwich experienced about 15.4 inches of rainfall cumulatively over March, April and May, according to a water supply update issued by Aquarion Water Co. on June 9. Stamford saw an even greater rainfall.

As a result of higher precipitation and a reduction of water usage in the area, both Stamford and Greenwich’s water systems have rebounded. Aquarion listed the Greenwich water system’s reservoir capacity at 98.9 percent full and Stamford’s at 93.6 percent full as of June 6, with both towns possessing more water than they did this time last year.

The state as a whole has seen similar water conservation victories.

“Drinking water reservoirs have improved and average levels statewide were more than 100 percent of normal as of the end of April, with three systems at less than 90 percent of normal,” McClure said in his release.

Some conservation efforts by water companies continue, with some imposing mandatory restrictions and others requesting voluntary conservation by customers. Aquarion has relaxed its mandatory ban on lawn sprinkling, moving to a twice-weekly irrigation schedule.

According to Peter Fazekas, the director of public relations at Aquarion, the company has no intention of lifting the current restrictions on sprinkling this season.

“The reason for that is, we put [the restriction] in place to ensure that we do not hit a drought trigger this year,” Fazekas said.

Although efforts to refill the state’s reservoirs have been successful, Connecticut’s stream flow and groundwater levels remain below their historical average. Increased rainfall, while ameliorating the issue of low reservoir levels, does not necessarily fix low stream flow and groundwater, which require consistent precipitation.

Greenwich received nearly five inches of rainfall over “three or four days” between the end of March and early April, but the sudden precipitation led to saturated soil conditions and runoff from the rivers, both of which can prevent the ground and rivers from absorbing some of the needed rain.

For example, throughout March, the stream flow of Rippowam River in Stamford was lower than that of its average recorded discharge over the past 29 years, according to the United States Geological Survey’s Surface-Water Daily Statistics. On March 6, the river averaged 14.6 cubic feet of water per second, and on March 14 it averaged 20.3 cubic feet of water per second. Between 1976 and 2016, the river averaged 105 cubic feet per second and 137 cubic feet per second on those days, respectively.

Rippowam River remains at low flow—it is currently about four inches below the historical average for the month, and its stream flow has fallen to lower levels since the beginning of the month. Over the week of June 4 through June 10, the river averaged at 29.4 cubic feet of water per second, while the same week has historically seen flow discharge rates of 55.9 cubic feet of water per second between 1976 and 2016.

Denise Savageau, the director of the Greenwich Conservation Commission, stressed that low stream flow levels, which signal a drained groundwater supply, could threaten Greenwich’s land values.

“If we want to protect property values, we want to make sure that we have enough water. The last thing you need is to all of a sudden have people who are on wells saying, ‘It’s a groundwater shortage.’ That’s not going to help property values,” Savageau said.

Long Island Sound, according to Savagaeu, may suffer from the weakening of the freshwater streams that connect to it.

“The life blood of Long Island Sound is all the rivers and streams coming into it and the economic value of this community is a healthy Long Island Sound,” she continued. “There are people who live here because of the proximity [to Long Island Sound]. It’s an economic driver for our region.”

One key to continuing the effort to conserve water, Savageau noted, is for residents to only irrigate their lawns once a week, as well as to consider replacing portions of their lawns with other landscaping, such as meadow or garden.

“If you really want to have a healthy lawn, you actually water once a week. In this region, because of the coolness and the natural rainfall we have, for the most part people can get away with watering once a week,” Savageau said. “You develop better root systems, healthier plants—they don’t need as much fertilizer, they don’t need as much pesticide.”

Fazekas noted that new legislation (which Savagaeu added is part of Connecticut’s in-development State Water Plan) will respond to the state’s weakened stream flow, requiring Aquarion to release water downstream from reservoirs once the law goes into effect ten years from now.

“It’s going to require years of adding infrastructure and conservation to make up for the loss of water that’s no longer available,” Fazekas said. “For us, that means increasing the amount of water from the Bridgeport system transported into Stamford and Greenwich.”

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