Drought in Pennsylvania, February 1 to 28, 2002

The drought tightened its grip across Eastern Pennsylvania during the month of February. For many places it was the driest February on record. On a county weighted average, monthly precipitation totals ranged from 0.5 inches in Chester County to 1.3 inches in Monroe County. Normal is around 2.9 inches.The continued dry conditions forced Governor Mark Schweiker to upgrade the drought warning to a drought emergency for all of Eastern Pennsylvania on February 12th. The drought emergency placed an immediate ban on non-essential use of water. Water could be served in restaurants only be request. Vehicles could only be washed by buckets or hand held hoses with automatic shutoff nozzles. There was a limit to the amount of watering for newly seeded or sodded grass. Golf courses could only water greens, tees and fairways in accordance with state approved water conservation plan. Swimming pools cannot be filled or topped off unless they are open to the public or to dwellings of more than 25 units. Ornamental fountains, reflecting pools and waterfalls must be emptied and there were restrictions on watering of athletic fields. The drought emergency declaration allows communities to implement and enforce mandatory water conservation measures and develop local drought emergency plans. Public water suppliers will also implement their own drought contingency plans and large self-supplied commercial and industrial water users will have to develop individual drought contingency plans. Methods to conserve water include fixing leaking toilets and faucets, running dishwashers and washing machines at full loads only, replacing old toilets with newer ones, installing water efficient showerheads, leaving a jug of water in the refrigerator, using a bucket to wash vehicles and turning off the water while brushing teeth or shaving. The governor was particularly concerned about private wells running dry. This was already occurring in Chester and Montgomery Counties. In Chester County, the applications to deepen or replace residential wells increased by 62 percent in 2001 and 44 percent in 2002. Sixteen of the twenty monitoring wells in the county were at drought emergency levels. Springs in the county were going dry. In Montgomery County, there have been about 80 requests for emergency well permits since July of 2001. Most were in Green Lane, Marlborough and Upper and Lower Pottsgrove Townships. Shallow wells were also going dry in Bucks and Carbon Counties. Well contractors were so swamped that there was a three week waiting period. Above ground water supplies were no better during February. The Springton Reservoir (Delaware County) was at 43 percent of capacity. Normal is 70 percent. Many streams in the area were flowing at the lowest ten percentile for this time of year. The dry conditions forced Chester County to issue a 30 day ban on opening burnings. Outdoor burning bans were also in effect in four townships in Carbon County. 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. The commission declared a drought emergency on December 18th. Both 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. 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. 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. The salt front along the Delaware River was farther upstream than it normally is during February. 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. The February precipitation total of 0.55 at the Philadelphia International Airport was the driest February on record. It was also the driest February on record (0.55 inches also) at the Lehigh Valley International Airport. At Reading (Berks County), the monthly precipitation total was 0.68 inches and was 2.09 inches below normal. It was also the driest meteorological (December through February) winter on record at the Lehigh Valley International Airport with only 3.92 inches of precipitation. It was the seventh driest winter on record (5.09 inches) at the Philadelphia International Airport. The winter precipitation total of 4.91 inches in Reading was 5.08 inches below normal.