Water utilities ask Central Jersey customers to cut back on outdoor watering
The heat wave has prompted New Jersey American Water and Middlesex Water to ask customers in Hunterdon, Middlesex, Somerset and Union counties to take voluntary steps to conserve water to avoid possible restrictions in the future.
Middlesex Water issued a voluntary water conservation notice to its customers. Customers are asked to voluntarily limit all non-essential water use until further notice to avoid more restrictive measures to reduce usage.
To conserve water, New Jersey American Water is asking customers to implement a voluntary odd/even schedule for outdoor watering.
Odd/even guidelines are:
Outdoor water use on odd-numbered days of the month if your street address is an odd number (i.e., 23 Oak St., 7 Maple Ave.)
Outdoor water use on even-numbered days of the month if your street address is an even number (i.e., 6 Oak St., 354 Maple Ave.)
The company is also advising customers to water early or late in the day to minimize evaporation.
“Our systems are currently operating normally at expected capacity, but we are seeing a steep increase in demands across these counties,” said Tom Shroba, vice president of operations at New Jersey American Water. “Adopting an odd/even schedule for outdoor watering will have minimal impacts on the individual customer but will provide a significant relief in demand on our source of supply.”
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The voluntary cutbacks do not apply to watering of new sod or seed if daily watering is required; use of private wells for irrigation; commercial uses of outdoor water, such as for nurseries, farm stands, power washing, plumbing, athletic fields and car washes; and watering of athletic fields
Additional tips and information on wise water use are available on New Jersey American Water’s website.
The New Jersey Water Supply Authority, which operates Round Valley and Spruce Run reservoirs in Hunterdon County, is reporting well below average rainfall in Central Jersey in July.
At Spruce Run reservoir, only .88 inches of rain has been recorded so far this month, well below the July average of 6.04 inches with less than two weeks to go before August.
At its rain gauge in southern Somerset County, the Authority has recorded .53 inches of rain this month, well below the July average of 5.16 inches.Though July has been extremely dry, rainfall since the beginning of the year has been near normal with above normal rainfall in April and May.
The National Drought Mitigation Center has classified Central Jersey as "abnormally dry."According the Authority, the water level at Spruce Run has dropped to 82.9% of capacity while Round Valley, because of its ongoing refurbishment work, is at 65%.
The reservoirs supply water to the South Branch of the Raritan River which flows into the Raritan River where New Jersey American Water obtains its water.
Email: mdeak@mycentraljersey.com
Mike Deak is a reporter for mycentraljersey.com. To get unlimited access to his articles on Somerset and Hunterdon counties, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.
This article originally appeared on MyCentralJersey.com: NJ water utilities ask customers to conserve water during heat wave
