conservation necessary
VERONICA YANKOWSKI Becky Durand, 13, of Howell paints the face of Ben Cahill, 9, of Ringoes in the “children’s tent” during a show at the Horse Park of New Jersey, Upper Freehold, on Sunday.
State officials say water restrictions still apply;
conservation necessary
By alison granito
Staff Writer
Despite the wet Labor Day weekend, New Jersey is still suffering from the most severe drought in recent memory.
State climatologist David Robinson said that although last week’s rainfall was helpful, it did little to ease the overall severity of the drought.
"The weather did help, but we’ve been dry for a lot longer than most people realize," Robinson said Tuesday. "It definitely did not alleviate the drought."
According to Robinson, before this stretch of rain and the severe storm that ripped through the local area on Aug. 2, New Jersey was on its way to marking the driest summer in a century. As it stands now, he said that this season will probably go down as one of the top 10 driest in the past 100 years.
Robinson said that many people fail to realize that the regional area has been under drought conditions for more than four years, with precipitation levels measuring below average for 36 of the past 50 months.
However, in August, Robinson described the Monmouth/Ocean County area as "off to a good start" to bring precipitation levels back up to normal for this time of year.
He estimated that during the rains that began last week and continued through Monday, most of the local area saw between 3 and 4 inches of rain.
"It wouldn’t surprise me if some parts of Monmouth, Ocean and Middlesex [counties] got more than that," he added.
"We’ve had a short respite this week, but that does not make up for the prolonged effects of dry weather," Robinson said.
"We have been dry for so long that certain parts of our hydrologic system are really suffering right now, especially the groundwater," he explained.
In Millstone Township, which is the only municipality in Monmouth County completely dependent on wells for drinking water, the drought has taken a heavy toll on the water supply. At press time, officials said that approximately 60 wells had stopped drawing water over the course of the summer.
County health officials said that other communities in the western and southern portions of the county, particularly Howell township, have also seen their share of wells go dry.
Robinson said that the heavy, sustained rainfall over last weekend will "serve as a primer, to soften up the soil so that future rains which may follow can be absorbed by the ground."
"That’s not to say that the improvement in the situation is permanent. All we need is another month of dry weather to undo the gains we made," he added.
Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) spokeswoman Elaine Makatura said that all water restrictions remain in place.
"Just because we received some much-needed rain does not mean the drought has come to an end. There is still an absolute need for conservation," she said.
Makatura drew a parallel between credit card debt and the dry weather that has plagued the area this summer.
"If you don’t make a payment on your credit card for months, and then you finally make one, does that mean that all the debt you have built up has been erased? As we all know, it doesn’t," she said.
"There is a need to stop dealing with this from drought to drought and look at long-term water resource management," added Makatura.
Currently, the DEP has banned all outdoor water use, including the watering of lawns and washing of vehicles. The agency has also cracked down on water usage limits at some water-intensive businesses, such as golf courses.
Complete details on water restrictions are available at the Web site www.njdrought.org or through a DEP hotline at 1-800-448-7379.