Drought in New Jersey, January 1 to 31, 2002

Unseasonably dry weather continued across New Jersey during the month of January. While more precipitation fell during January than any month since last September, it was still drier than normal, especially across the northern half of the state. On a county weighted average, monthly precipitation totals ranged from 1.5 inches in Warren County to 2.9 inches in Mercer, Burlington and Ocean Counties. Normal monthly precipitation is around 3.4 inches. The continued dry weather, the drop in stream flow and groundwater levels and the reduced levels in the New York State reservoirs prompted the New Jersey State Department of Environmental Protection to upgrade the drought watch to a drought warning for counties in the Delaware River Basin and southern New Jersey on November 21st. At the end of January, stream and creek flow remained well below normal and some were either tying or breaking record low stream flow for the days. The Paulins Kill (Warren County) was within 2 cubic feet per second (cfs) of its record low flow, the North Branch of the Rancocas Creek at Pemberton (Burlington County) was flowing at only 29?% of its normal rate and the Great Egg Harbor River at Folsom (Atlantic County) tied its record low flow (36 cfs) for the date. Groundwater supplies were no better. Wells in Mercer and Cumberland Counties were within half a foot of their record lows. On January 4th, Mount Olive Township (Morris County) placed mandatory water restrictions into effect. On January 24th Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) acting commissioner Bradley Campbell extended the drought warning to seven additional counties in northern New Jersey as well as all of Monmouth and Ocean Counties. The only counties not under a drought warning were Middlesex, Union and Somerset Counties. Northern New Jersey reservoirs were at 42.9 percent of capacity when they should be at 80.1 percent of capacity. Reservoir levels were lower than they were prior to Hurricane Floyd in 1999. The drought warning declaration also called for reduced releases from the Wanaque, Point View, Boonton and Split Rock Reservoirs and reduced the passing flow on the Passaic, Pompton, Ramapo, Raritan, Saddle, Shark, Jumping Brook, Manasquan and Metedeconk Rivers. While no formal restrictions were in place, state officials asked residents and businesses to curb unnecessary water use and practice conservation. The Delaware River Basin Commission, which oversees water supply throughout the Delaware River Basin declared a "drought" on December 3rd when the supply of water in the New York City reservoir system dropped below a designated level for early December. This triggered additional reductions in the amount of water released from the reservoirs into the Delaware River and the amount diverted out of the Delaware River Basin to New York City and New Jersey. Diversions to New York City dropped from 800 million gallons a day to 520 million gallons a day. Diversions to northern New Jersey through the Delaware and Raritan Canal was reduced to 65 million gallons a day from 100 million gallons a day. The emergency declaration gave the commission the power to restrict the amount of water suppliers could draw from the basin. It gave the commission the authority to take water from municipal reservoirs to maintain river levels. It could also call for water releases from federal, state and privately owned reservoirs. Water from Lake Nockamixon, the F.E. Walter Reservoir and Lake Wallenpaupack could be used to maintain river levels. All of these bodies of water are in Pennsylvania. They were last used for this purpose in the 1960s. The releases help protect the riverbank and aquatic life and also prevents salt water from flowing up the Delaware River. Salt water intrusion causes corrosion problems for industries and increases water treatment costs for municipalities that depend on the river for their water supply. Maintaining river levels are also important for groundwater reserves that are recharged by the river itself, especially in southern New Jersey. The salt front along the Delaware River was farther upstream than it normally is during January. The emergency declaration also gives the commission the power to request that utilities and other companies that use more than one million gallons of water a day to prepare contingency plans to use less water and submit the plans to the commission.