State mulls drought warning or emergency, with weather forecast offering no relief

The Oradell Reservoir in Haworth is one of more than a dozen reservoirs statewide that provide drinking water to New Jersey residents. Most are barely half full, due to the ongoing drought. (Photo courtesy of New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection)

New Jersey environmental officials are expected to declare a drought warning as soon as Wednesday, requiring water systems possibly statewide to take mandatory water conservation measures.

The state has been under a drought watch since Oct. 12 after two months without measurable precipitation, and the ongoing dry spell — October was the driest month in New Jersey since climate record-collecting began in 1895 — shows little sign of ending.

“You can see a very bleak picture across the entire state, one that is only worsening,” state climatologist David Robinson said.

Robinson and state geologist Steven Domber helmed a virtual public hearing Tuesday on the state’s fast-dwindling water resources, where they laid out the case for New Jersey to declare a drought warning. Gov. Phil Murphy, Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner Shawn LaTourette, and other state officials are scheduled to brief the press Wednesday on next steps.

Officials could declare a statewide warning or emergency, or make a declaration that targets the driest regions or counties in the state.

Under a drought watch, water conservation is voluntary and outdoor fire restrictions are in place. Under a warning, LaTourette could order water systems to comply with a series of restrictions, including bulk transfers of water between water systems, development of alternative water supplies, and a temporary modification of water allocation permits, such as reservoir releases.

After a warning, the governor could declare a drought emergency, under which he would order broader mandatory restrictions on water usage.

If they move from watch to warning, it would be the first such declaration in almost a decade. The last statewide drought warning was declared in October 2016, while the last drought emergency, which lasted 10 months, was declared in March 2002.

At Tuesday’s public hearing, Robinson and Domber largely blamed a months-long lack of precipitation for plummeting levels in water-supply reservoirs — some are barely half full — and severely depleted groundwater levels and streamflows statewide.

Robinson showed a recent national map of drought conditions updated weekly by the U.S. Drought Monitor, a partnership between the National Drought Mitigation Center at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

While the map indicates much of the country now has abnormally dry conditions to moderate drought, most of New Jersey is in severe drought, while much of Atlantic, Burlington and Ocean counties were colored red to show extreme drought conditions.

“It has been 20 years since the Drought Monitor had any part of New Jersey colored in red, in an extreme drought,” Robinson said.

September was the state’s third driest on record, while October, when 4.19 inches of rain normally falls in the Garden State, “was essentially a shutout for precipitation,” he said.

The dry conditions are expected to continue “at least over the short term,” Domber said.

“We are certainly hoping for a return to normal, but there is no sign of that,” he added.

The prolonged dry conditions have been accompanied by warmer temperatures than usual, contributing to worsened wildfire risks statewide, the scientists noted.

Recent wildfires have ravaged the state’s north and south, with a 360-acre blaze between Voorhees and Evesham and another 181-acre wildfire in Pompton Lakes largely contained. A separate ongoing fire, dubbed the Jennings Creek Wildfire, has expanded to 3,500 acres in Passaic County and Orange County, N.Y. That was just 20% contained as of Tuesday, with 35 mph winds creating “significant challenges,” according to the New Jersey Forest Fire Service.

From drinking water to creek critters

At Tuesday’s virtual hearing, Robinson, Domber, and other state Department of Environmental Protection employees heard from a steady stream of water supply professionals, environmentalists, and others who urged them to declare a drought warning immediately. More than 200 people tuned in, with dozens voicing their concerns and asking questions for over an hour.

Beyond the weather, many laid the blame for the state’s water woes on suburban homeowners who water their lawns.

“One out of every three gallons that’s being used in the summer is lawn irrigation,” said Bob Kecskes, a retired water supply planner at the state Department of Environmental Protection. “So a small fraction of water customers is helping to go into this drought warning and possible drought emergency … We have to start putting some type of regulation on those.”

Several people who testified worried the state’s driest towns and counties would run out of drinking water and water to fight fires.

Others fretted about water quality, wondering if subsiding water levels in the reservoirs could expose lurking contaminants. One woman asked how the drought was impacting private wells and what restrictions might be placed on property owners who don’t rely on public water systems.

Farmer Jeff Tober of Rancocas Creek Farm in Burlington County warned the drought would impact food supply and threaten farms’ winter growing season and next year’s crops.

John Saccenti of the New Jersey Association of Local Boards of Health Association asked if medical facilities would be a priority for water supplies, if the drought persists.

Morgan Crouch of the New Jersey AmeriCorps Watershed Ambassadors Program testified that as the drought depletes aquifers, where most of South Jersey’s drinking water comes from, salt water can be drawn in and pollute the aquifers.

She also does stream assessments in the Great Egg Harbor watershed in South Jersey and warned of the drought’s impact beyond humans.

“When we’re sampling for benthic macroinvertebrates — little mostly larval insects that are living at the bottom of the stream — their habitat is being dried up recently with the drought, and those are critters that are supplying food for the entire ecosystem,” Crouch said. “So that’s very concerning.”

But officials had no answers, with a moderator assuring those who testified that they’d consider their concerns but couldn’t address individual questions during the hearing.

No one argued against the state declaring a drought warning or emergency.

“We should go to the drought emergency. I think we meet the requirements of that at this point,” said Mike Pisauro, policy director of the Pennington-based nonprofit Watershed Institute. “Doing the emergency designation, having water conservation, immediately will save water — water we may not have if we wait too long to take those steps.”

Nikita Biryukov contributed.

This story has been updated to correct the dates for New Jersey’s last drought watch and drought emergency declarations.

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