HAMDEN, Conn. — The state agency that monitors drought conditions has upgraded the drought severity in five Connecticut Counties. The lack of rain is affecting residents and businesses. Water Authorities are asking you to cut back on your usage by 10-15%.
Sky 61 showed us the shallows of the Farmington River in Canton on Monday. It's a popular fishing spot that won’t be restocked this fall thanks to the drought. Four counties, Hartford, Tolland, Windham, and New London have been upgraded to stage three moderate drought conditions. Middlesex County was upgraded to drought level two.
"A moderate drought actually requests that voluntary actions be taken to help conserve water," said Martin heft, the Chair of the Interagency Drought Workgroup.
That’s what they’ve been doing over at Lyman Orchards in Middlefield where they’ve had to ration their irrigation affecting crops and their golf course.
Owner John Lyman said, "That’s happened on our good courses as well where the ponds get low and we have to start cutting back, so the fairway is starting to brown up."
Water authorities say, for now, the drinking water supply is stable. MDC reporting reservoirs at 83% capacity, while the four reservoirs of South Central CT Regional Water Authority, including here at Whitney Lake in Hamden is at 68% capacity. Dan Doyle is on the drought team for the South Central CT Regional Water Authority.
He said, "With everyone home particularly because of COVID 19, we did see this summer an unprecedented increase in water use."
The unusually arid summer has also led to an increased brush fire danger. "We’ve seen Windham County area the fires that have been out there the past couple of weeks," said Heft.
Common sense measures to converse water include not letting the faucet run, fixing leaks, upgrading to high-efficiency appliances, shortening your showers, watering by hand, and capturing and reusing rainwater.
According to the experts we are about 10 inches of rain below where we should be. CT’s has five stages of drought severity with stage four kicking in mandatory water restrictions and state five being a state of emergency.
