Long Island officials ask residents to conserve water under drought watch

State officials announced there is a drought watch for part of New York state, including Long Island.

News 12 Staff

Jul 28, 2020, 9:19 PM

Updated 1,600 days ago

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State officials announced there is a drought watch for part of New York state, including Long Island.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo says this is primarily due to the excessive heat and lack of rain. He is asking the public to help conserve water so things don't get worse.
Port Washington water officials say the water table in the area has been low for years.
"It means we're taking too much out so it can't replenish itself," said Italo Vacchio, of the Port Washington Water District.
Water district officials in Port Washington say there's no need for their customers to worry, there's plenty of water to put the sprinklers on the lawn, to wash dishes and to shower. But they do have a plan in place to conserve resources.
David Brackett, of the Port Washington Water District, says they are asking residents to "cut back their minutes of watering by each zone by five minutes."
Port Washington has asked its tens of thousands of consumers to also turn on their automatic sprinklers at different times of the day to even out the flow of water.
Brackett says residents are listening and the conservation effort is working.
"We would be looking at pumping of somewhere between seven and eight million gallons a day, and right now we're running about five million gallons a day," says Brackett.
Officials say other ways to conserve water are to fix any leaky faucets, water your lawn every other day and not use your sprinklers when it rains.