New York City Issues Drought Warning as Reservoirs Dry Up

Mayor Eric Adams on Monday elevated New York City’s drought watch to a drought warning, the last step before declaring a drought emergency, which would come with mandatory water restrictions, The New York Times reports.

The warning extends beyond the city to include 10 additional New York State counties, including much of the Hudson Valley. In the rest of the state, which is also experiencing abnormally dry conditions, Gov. Kathy Hochul has declared a drought watch.

Although no restrictions are required under a drought warning, officials are urging residents to voluntarily conserve water any way they can. Zach Iscol, commissioner of the city’s emergency management department, suggests taking shorter showers and running dishwashers and laundry machines only with full loads. Other measures include foregoing watering gardens and lawns, washing cars, or hosing down sidewalks. “We urgently need every New Yorker to join these efforts,” Iscol says.

New York and New Jersey are battling a wildfire along their shared border in the mountains that has proved difficult to contain and led to evacuations in a nearby town on Sunday. And New York City has seen a record number of brush fires — 270 and counting — this month. Several of them flared up in popular green spaces such as Prospect Park in Brooklyn and Inwood Hill Park in northern Manhattan.

The city’s reservoirs, which are usually around 79% full at this time of year, are down to about 60% of their total capacity, and the inch of rain forecast in the coming days will not be enough to replenish them, officials said. New York City has received less than a quarter-inch of rain since Oct. 1, according to the National Weather Service.

One contingency plan involves the pause of the Delaware Aqueduct repair project, a $2 billion, eight-month initiative, planned for decades, that required the shutdown of a crucial tunnel responsible for transporting about half the city’s water supply. Since repairs began in early October, access to four major reservoirs in the Catskill Mountains has been cut off.

New York City’s last drought warning was issued in early 2002. Three months later, it was upgraded to a drought emergency.

With a drought warning now in place, New Yorkers are waiting with trepidation for the other shoe to drop.