Drought in Pennsylvania, March 1 to 31, 2002

Eastern Pennsylvania entered arch 2002 with considerably dry conditions and a drought emergency in effect. Governor Mark Schweiker upgraded 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. The governor was particularly concerned about private wells running dry. This was already occurring in Chester and Montgomery Counties. During March, requests for deeper wells also came from Nockamixon Township (Bucks County) and Easton (Northampton County). The unseasonably dry weather resulted in outdoor burning bans in Berks, Chester and Montgomery Counties. This was only the second countywide outdoor burning ban in Montgomery County history. Local during bans were also in effect in Bucks and Carbon Counties. Townships cancelled plans to plant new flowers and shrubbery. 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. On March 1st, the salt front along the Delaware River was five miles farther upstream than normal. 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. Because of the drought emergency, the annual white water release from Lake Nockamixon (Bucks County) into Tohickon Creek for March 16th was cancelled. Conditions improved as the month wore on. Precipitation events on March 2nd and 3rd, 13th, 17th and 18th, 20th, 26th and 31st resulted in above normal precipitation for Eastern Pennsylvania. This was the first month since June of 2001 that the eastern part of the state. On a county weighted average, March monthly precipitation totals ranged from 3.3 inches in Northampton County to 5.0 inches in Delaware County. Normal is around 3.4 inches. The monthly precipitation total was 3.68 inches at the Lehigh valley International Airport, 4.03 inches at the Philadelphia International Airport and 3.59 inches at Reading (Berks County). The New York City Reservoirs which feed the Delaware River increased from 39.3 percent of capacity on March 1st to 50.2 percent of capacity on April 1st. The salt front on the Delaware River was only 2 miles farther upstream than normal on April 1st. Average flow for the major rivers during the month of March was only about 50 percent of normal.