Record dryness in US Northeast should change water behavior, experts say
DENVER — It was not a typical fall for the northeastern United States.
Having fires burned in parks and forests around New York City. Towns and cities in an area from Portsmouth, New Hampshire, to south of Philadelphia had the driest three months on record, according to the Applied Climate Information System. Some reservoirs in the region are almost historic lows.
Major changes need to happen to prevent critical water shortages in the future, even if that future is not immediate. As the climate warms, droughts will also occur continue to intensify and communities should use them as motivation to implement long-term solutions, experts say.
“This is the canary in the coal mine for the future,” said Tim Eustance, executive director of the North Jersey District Water Supply Commission. “People should stop watering their lawns yesterday.”
Eustance wants New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy to declare a drought emergency to increase people’s sense of urgency.
Here are some ways to stretch water that experts say could be necessary in the Northeast.
An important place where water is stored is under our feet. Groundwater has dropped significantly over the years in parts of Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey and New York.
Groundwater makes up about half of New Jersey’s drinking water. Expansion and concrete can make it difficult for rain to replenish underground water.
“New Jersey is ‘mall-landia.’ We have huge parking lots that can be a way to reclaim water instead of runoff,” Eustance said.
In some other parts of the country, there is increasing use of permeable asphalt, concrete and pavers that allow water to seep into the ground and back into the aquifer. It is up to the municipalities to demand this, he says.
A faster way to recharge the aquifer is to inject high-quality treated wastewater into it, something Los Angeles has been doing for years. It contributes dramatically to the city’s available water.
Virginia Beach, Virginia, also pumps highly treated water back into the aquifer, and Anne Arundel County in Maryland is trying to pass legislation that would allow the same.
In some places in the western US, getting paid to save water has long been an option. Some cities and counties pay dollars for every square foot lawn torn up and replaced with native landscaping.
These policies aren’t nearly as widespread in the Northeast, said Alan Roberson, CEO of the Association of State Drinking Water Administrators.
“The abundance has created a different perspective,” he said. This can make it difficult to get people on board with conservation.
Improved water meters can give customers details about their water use and help them see where they can save money when the drought doesn’t feel as urgent, says Beth O’Connell, chief engineer of Anne Arundel County, Maryland.
The concept is simple: collect water from the sink, clothes washing machine, shower and toilet, treat it to a high standard and reuse it for non-potable purposes: it can be sent back through pipes to flush toilets, cool buildings, watering holes to water or to help raise the water level in a river or aquifer.
“I think one of the crimes in America is that we use drinking water to water our lawns and flush our toilets,” Eustance said.
Zach Gallagher is CEO of Natural Systems Utilities, which designs, builds and operates water recycling systems. He is also a father of three and lives in New Jersey, so this drought is hitting close to home.
“I feel like I’m doing something meaningful and leaving a legacy for my children and their children,” he said.
Reuse can be a tool in both droughts and floods, he explained. When a building can reuse its own wastewater and discharge it directly into a body of water, it relieves pressure on a city’s fragile sewage system, which is a common vulnerability in old coastal cities. It also reduces the demand for new water.
Once opened this summer, the redesign of the old Domino Sugar Refinery on New York’s East River will be able to treat 400,000 gallons (1.5 million liters) of wastewater per day, enough to cover a nearly 14-inch football field. of water. The cleaned water will be returned to the new mixed-use buildings for toilet flushing, cooling and landscaping, with some of it released back into the river.
Non-potable reuse has a growing footprint in the eastern U.S., but scaling it to a regional level should be the next focus, O’Connell said.
Planning for a future with prolonged drought can be costly. It may also require a shift in mindset from abundance to conservation, says Del Shannon, a dam engineer and member of the American Society of Civil Engineers.
He has worked on water projects around the world and said many developing countries are focused on obtaining reliable water for crops and drinking water.
“We need to treat our water and handle it with the same care as those countries.”
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