LYNN — Water and sewer officials said that water levels are likely to drop below 50 percent capacity within the next few weeks, warranting a water curtailment mandate.
Lynn Water Treatment Supervisor Richard Dawe said that on Sunday, Lynn reservoir water levels dropped to 51 percent capacity, only one percent above the cutoff for mandatory community water curtailment.
Dawe said that he expects the city’s water levels to drop below the cutoff within the next few weeks. If it does, the department will issue warnings to those excessively watering their lawns or washing their cars.
“At 50 percent, we have limited restrictions that will be limiting car washing on the weekends, limiting watering their lawns to every other day, and prohibiting watering lawns 24 hours after measurable rainfall,” Dawe said. “We’ll start with going around and giving warnings to people at that point when it hits 50 percent, so that’s roughly two plus weeks away from hitting that criteria.”
The last time the city has been hit with a similar drought, Dawe said, was the summer of 2016 when reservoir levels dropped below 40 percent, qualifying for an enforced water ban. With this summer’s rain water levels measuring less than a half of the 30-year average, Dawe said that it has been a dry summer.
“[In] our last drought in 2016, we had a significant drought in our reservoir capacity. It actually dropped into the upper 30 percent in October, November,” Dawe said. “This has been another tough summer. I mean, from March until August, we have about 11 plus inches of rain below normal.”
Dawe said that his department is asking the public, as well as the city, to combat the drought by mitigating their water usage.
“We’re reaching out to the public where we want them, if they can, just stop not really watering their lawns and have to water their lawns every day. The sun angle now as we’re heading into September, is a lot lower than July and early August. Whatever they could do to conserve water would be appreciated. We reached out to the city to cut back on the watering of the municipal properties for the same reason,” Dawe said.
Mayor Jared Nicholson said that the city has taken measures to reduce water waste by turning off sprinklers and irrigation systems on most public green spaces. Nicholson said that the city’s splash pads remain open, since they provide children with a safe way to cool off, but that they are self-timed.
“The impacts of this drought are extremely concerning and we are doing what we can here in the city to scale back our water usage,” Nicholson said. “This has included the stoppage of irrigation systems at most traffic islands and parks. Currently we have kept splash pads, which are self-timed, in the city turned on so that residents can cool off during the heat.”
Dawe said that Lynn Water and Sewer Commission is working to combat the water shortage by repairing any leaks in water infrastructure, and ensuring that fire hydrants are not being used for non-emergencies.
He added that the quality of the city’s reservoir makes a positive difference in times of extreme drought.
“What we’re doing now to address this issue is that any leaks that we become aware of, we are going to address immediately. We make sure that all hydrant use is restricted for emergency purposes,” Dawe said. “We have a high quality of water that we provide to the city and we’re recognized by the state. Obviously, we’re very proud of our water system that our forefathers came up with, that we have windfall, 4.2 billion gallons of water storage that allows us to get through tough periods that we’re in right now, the drought. We’re very resilient.”
Anthony Cammalleri can be reached at [email protected].
