NORWICH, Conn. — Norwich Public Utilities (NPU) have issued a water supply warning to residential and commercial customers to reduce usage by 10% due to low reservoir water levels due to ongoing severe drought conditions.
Officials said reduced usage would be "very helpful" for their reservoirs.
“With the ongoing drought in the region and no significant rain in the immediate weather forecast, we are approaching a serious water supply situation. Therefore, we must strongly encourage our customers to be more aware of how they are using water,” said Chris LaRose, General Manager of Norwich Public Utilities.
On Monday, NPU said their two reservoirs are at 72.43% capacity, and with no rain expected this week, these levels will likely be below 70% by the end of this week. On a typical day, NPU said they provide customers with about 4.8 million gallons of water.
NPU said there are approximately 228 days of water supply in its reservoirs. For comparison, if the reservoir is 100% full, there is enough water for 321 days.
So far in August, only 2.87 inches of rain at Deep River and 4.53 inches at Stony Brook have fallen.
NPU suggested the following:
- Taking shorter showers
- Only running dishwashers and washing machines with full loads
- Limiting non-essential water use, such as watering lawns and gardens or washing cars
- Hold off on refilling any swimming pools
NPU said they would contact major water users to determine the potential for emergency water conservation and request that they reduce consumption.
They will also consider bringing the Norwichtown Well online which can provide an extra 1 million gallons of water daily.
Doug Stewart is a digital content producer at FOX61 News. He can be reached at dstewart@fox61.com.
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