Submitted by Jeff Ulrich, Vice President of Connecticut Operations, Aquarion Water Company
In a recent letter to the editor (LETTER: Lots of rain, no drought, so why continue watering restrictions? Aug 13, 2023) a writer asks, if recent rainfall has helped reservoir levels rebound to above normal levels, why are watering restrictions still in place? Great question!
Greenwich reservoirs simply do not have the storage capacity to meet the seasonal demand driven by irrigation each year. The combination of high summer demand and constrained reservoir capacity have led to our permanent twice-weekly irrigation schedule. This schedule helps us to avoid hitting drought triggers and has saved billions of gallons of water since going into effect.
Our twice-weekly irrigation schedule was implemented as a permanent conservation measure following the drought of 2016. During that severe event, outdoor water use was banned in Southwest Fairfield County (SWFC) and Aquarion spent millions of dollars on temporary infrastructure to ensure water for everyday use and firefighting in Greenwich and neighboring communities. Since then, with the support of town officials, the Connecticut Department of Public Health, the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, and the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority, Aquarion has done the
following:
• Implemented a mandatory, twice-weekly irrigation schedule to reduce irrigation demands – this schedule has successfully reduced seasonal demands and is now in place in 18 towns;
• Modified the drought triggers in our State-approved Water Supply Plan to give us an earlier warning system designed to avoid outdoor watering bans;
• Increased our State-approved Diversion Permit from 7 million to 14 million gallons-per-day, allowing us to double the amount of water we can transfer into SWFC; and
• We continue to invest millions of dollars in infrastructure improvements needed to deliver that additional water to SWFC on an ongoing basis.
In addition to the high seasonal demands in SWFC, starting in 2029, Aquarion will begin releasing additional water from your local reservoirs to comply with the State’s streamflow regulations. This will improve local aquatic habitats but reduce the amount of water being stored in our reservoirs for your water supply needs.
Sound water supply planning to meet these challenges requires that we address both the supply and demand side of the equation. Moving additional water into SWFC from neighboring systems requires significant capital investment and ongoing energy expense that will ultimately be paid for by customers.
Given the cost of moving water into the SWFC region, we feel reducing sprinkler irrigation to twice per week is a fair and sustainable policy that is helping to preserve the region’s water supply for the long term.
Aquarion is thankful for our customers’ conservation efforts which help make it possible for us to ensure Greenwich and all the communities we serve have adequate water for fire protection and other essential needs.
To learn more about conservation or water-efficient landscaping, we invite you to visit our website at www.aquarionwater.com/conserve.
We also welcome the public to join us for a presentation on our conservation efforts at Greenwich Town Hall on September 13 at 6:30 pm.
Sincerely,
Jeff Ulrich, Vice President of Connecticut Operations, Aquarion Water Company