City of Worcester, MA

Worcester Declares Stage Two Drought Warning

For Immediate Release: 7/21/2016 4:36 pm

Worcester, MA (July 21, 2016) - In the midst of a prolonged period of below average rainfall, the City of Worcester on Thursday officially declared a Stage Two Drought Warning.

A Stage Two Drought Warning triggers mandatory water restrictions targeted at reducing water waste. The goal of these restrictions is to reduce water usage across the city by 10 to 15 percent, which would bring the City's water system to roughly 25 million gallons of consumption per day.

Through the end of June, Worcester reservoir system has seen 17.11 inches of rainfall, significantly below the 24-year annual average of 24.58 inches. The reduced rainfall prevented full recovery of the reservoir system following a dry 2015.

Worcester's water comes from 10 reservoirs across the city and five neighboring towns. Typically the reservoir system is 100 percent full entering the summer months when water consumption and evaporation begin to increase. Worcester's reservoir system was at 70.6 percent capacity on July 18th. The average July 1st capacity is 95.7 percent, while August 1st averages 88.3 percent.

Residential, commercial and industrial water users will be restricted to using outdoor irrigation systems three days per week, on an even/odd schedule, as illustrated below:

No irrigation will be allowed between the hours of 7 a.m. and 7 p.m., when most water applied is lost to evaporation. All water users are asked not to install new landscaping until after the drought has passed.

Hand watering and drip irrigation are not restricted.

A full list of restrictions is available at worcesterma.gov/dpw/drought.

The City will do its part to conserve water. Effective immediately, the City will:

• Reduce landscape watering of municipal parks, golf courses, medians and athletic fields by a minimum volume of 50 percent.
• Reduce non-essential water use. As used herein, non-essential water uses are those that do not have a health or safety impact and are not needed to meet the core function of the department.
• Suspend its formal water main flushing program.
• Restrict use of any ornamental fountains or ponds for aesthetic or scenic purposes except where necessary to support aquatic life or where such fountains or ponds are equipped with a recirculation system. This includes the new World War II Memorial on the Worcester Common.
• Reduce the frequency of washing City vehicles by 50 percent. The washing of garbage trucks and vehicles used to transport food and/or other perishables may take place as necessary for health, sanitation or public safety reasons.
• Notify consecutive water systems of actions being taken and require them to implement equivalent drought stage measures to reduce water use by fifteen percent.
• Increase public education, enforcement and leak detection efforts. The Department of Public Works will continue outreach to the City's largest institutional water users to get them to cut back on usage.
• Prohibit the installation of new separate water meters for irrigation.