Drought Warning Issued For Mercer County: NJDEP

A Drought Warning is now in effect in Mercer County, the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) announced on Friday.

It is one of 14 counties encompassing the northern, central and northern coastal areas of New Jersey that are now under a drought warning due to ongoing precipitation deficits and deteriorating water-supply conditions, particularly storage levels in reservoirs.

The others are Bergen, Essex, Hudson, Hunterdon, Middlesex, Monmouth, Morris, Ocean, Passaic, Somerset, Sussex, Union and Warren counties.

As a result of the warning, residents and businesses in Mercer County will need to reduce their water use. The warning comes one day after NJDEP held a hearing to update water suppliers and the public.

The goal of the drought warning is to preserve and balance available water supplies in an effort to avert more serious water shortages in the future.

Having the warning in place allows NJDEP to more closely manage reservoir systems by directing water transfers among systems, controlling releases from reservoirs, and modifying the rate of flow in streams and rivers in order to balance ecological protection and needs of water suppliers.

“The situation in our reservoir systems that serve some of the most densely populated regions of New Jersey is becoming more critical, with some systems dropping to half their capacity or less,” NJDEP Commissioner Bob Martin said. “Without knowing how much precipitation we are going to get over the fall and winter to replenish our water sources, it is vital that every resident and business step up efforts to voluntarily reduce water use in the hopes of averting a water emergency and mandatory restrictions.”

It is the first drought warning since November of 2001. That warning became an emergency that was phased in by regions as drought conditions worsened. The emergency was phased out over the latter half of 2002 into early 2003.

Martin has signed an Administrative Consent Order (ACO) that establishes a formal process for the DEP to work with water suppliers in affected regions to ensure no single water supplier or region faces a significant shortfall should dry weather and high customer demand continue.

NJDEP said it has been consulting with water suppliers for months to assess conditions and ensure they are fully aware of the situation and are ready to cooperate with the DEP.

For more state water supply status information and to view the Administrative Order, visit: www.njdrought.org.

For more detailed information on water conservation technologies and interesting facts, visit:
www.nj.gov/dep/watersupply/conserve.htm.