Worcester residents asked to conserve water as drought grips region
WORCESTER — The city is asking residents to be more mindful of their water use as the ongoing drought in the county takes its toll on the city's water reserves.
Phil Guerin, director of city water and sewer operations, said levels at the city's 10 reservoirs have dropped to 78.4% as of Sunday.
“We want people to start thinking about water conservation at any time,” Guerin said. “You can sweep your driveway and sidewalk if you want to get the leaves as opposed to hosing it down.”
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Guerin said the Department of Public Works is using 26 million gallons per day from the reservoirs to pump into the city, while "very little is going in because of the lack of rain."
Guerin said the city is expected to enter stage 1 drought status by the end of the month. This stage is “informational,” meaning the DPW would not enforce any restrictions on residential water use, but it would strongly suggest changes.
“We would want to get people just to stop wasting water,” said Guerin. “We'd get after people if they have leaks or if their lawn sprinklers are going in the middle of the day or if they're watering their sidewalk instead of the grass.
“If you'd be really wasting water, then we'd knock on the door.”
Last month, the state's Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs said 90% of Massachusetts, including Central Massachusetts, was experiencing significant drought.
But Guerin said that water levels this year are not expected to fall as far as they did in 2016, when reservoirs were just 50% full.
That year, Worcester bought $3 million worth of water from the Quabbin Reservoir.
"We're quite a ways away from that," said Guerin.
Guerin said that he doesn’t expect the city to enter stage 2, when outdoor watering would be restricted to every other day.
This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Worcester MA drought: residents asked to conserve water
