Every Drop Counts
By Albert B. Kelly
Needless to say that these past few weeks have been extraordinarily hot. Aside from making people uncomfortable and impacting people’s health, the heat and everything surrounding it is starting to impact the state’s water supply. What that means is that we need to start thinking about conserving water.
In late July, seven counties in New Jersey including Ocean, Monmouth, Mercer, Hunterdon, Middlesex Somerset, and Union counties were placed on water restrictions in response to the heat waves and the ongoing impacts on the water supply in that part of the state. But now, things have progressed to the point where the entire state is being asked to consider their water usage.
As of the second week in August, New Jersey was placed on a “drought watch”. I’m guessing this is the climate change version of a hurricane watch or thunderstorm watch and just as these weather watches basically mean that conditions are ripe for some type of weather event- the “drought watch” means that we’re not too many days or weeks away from tighter restrictions and beyond that, perhaps hardship.
The drought watch is step one in the process alerting us to the situation and asking that we not be careless or thoughtless when it comes to water. I love a green lawn as much as the next person, but perhaps one of the first things to curtail is the watering of lawns and gardens. This may be as simple as cutting back the amount of time and the amount of water used to keep our yards green. The same holds true for washing cars and doing any number of outdoor things involving water around homes.
The drought watch is basically asking us to give some thought to what we’re doing with water, recognize that water is not a limitless or infinite resource and to make some very deliberate decisions in the direction of using less water at this time. In other words, the watch being issued is asking us to conserve voluntarily.
This is the government’s way of asking “pretty please” and it begs the question of what happens if we don’t conserve voluntarily, if we decide to blow off the government in the name of some deep state water conspiracy. In that case, things will move to the next level which in this case, means a drought warning.
At this point, the “pretty please” of the drought watch becomes an order to reduce usage and the thinking of officials now shifts to not only managing water supplies, but planning exactly what conservation measures will be rolled out if things move into the category of an emergency. Once things get to the emergency stage, restrictions will be mandatory with the force of law behind it.
But my hope is that we will not have to deal with mandatory restrictions because of the choices we make at this stage. The thing to keep in mind at this stage is that it’s not “all or nothing”. For example, homeowners can still water their lawns and gardens but instead using water out of spigot, use water collected in a rain barrel. The easiest way to do this is to run downspouts into the rain barrel for later use.
Another measure to help conserve water is to use what farmers call “drip-irrigation” or “micro-sprays” instead of running sprinklers and spigots wide open with water shooting everywhere. This type of watering is targeted watering, it is working to ensure that for every 1 drop landing on the intended target we’re not wasting 10 drops on a sidewalk or walkway.
As far as lawns go, raise up the blade and let the grass remain a taller as this will let the lawn hold water far more effectively then if the lawn gets a crewcut. With a little more length to it, lawns will do fine with 1 inch of water per week.
For those with swimming pools, the suggestion is to use a water-saving filter and to cover the pool when not in use to as a way to lower the rate of evaporation. The other thing to avoid on the recreation side are those outdoor toys that require being hooked up the hose.
In terms of our water supply, we have been fortunate and lucky. Now it’s time to be thoughtful and deliberate in our usage.