file photo by Boyd Loving
April 2,2017
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ,recent rains are making head way toward alleviating the drought in Jersey,The Division of Water Supply and Geoscience within the Department of Environmental Protection, regularly monitors various water supply conditions within the state based on the different Water Supply Regions. The water supply conditions aid the Department in declaring the regions as being within one of the four stages of water supply drought, Normal, Drought Watch, Drought Warning, and Drought Emergency.
Bergen County finds is self still under a “drought warning” as of March 26th ,but what does that mean?
A drought warning represents a non-emergency phase of managing available water supplies during the developing stages of drought, and falls between the Watch and Emergency levels of drought response. The aim of a Drought Watch is to avert a more serious water shortage that would necessitate declaration of a water emergency and the imposition of mandatory water use restrictions, bans on water use, or other potentially drastic measures. Under a drought warning, the commissioner of the DEP may order water purveyors to develop alternative sources of water or transfer water between areas of the State with relatively more water to those with less. While mandatory water use restrictions are not imposed under a Warning, the general public is strongly urged to use water sparingly in affected areas.
