By Gus Saltonstall
On Monday afternoon, Mayor Eric Adams officially declared a Drought Warning in New York City for the first time since 2002.
The Drought Warning means that all New Yorkers are now being asked to conserve water, and that city agencies will deploy water-saving protocols.
The new declaration follows an October that was the driest month since records began in the city, and it has rained just once in November. The city has been under a drought watch since November 2.
New York’s reservoirs are currently 60 percent full, but the number should be closer to 80 percent, according to officials.
The city provides tips for how residents can conserve water, which include shorter showers, running the dishwasher less, not leaving the faucet running, not overwatering plants, and repairing any leaks around the house. You can check out more tips on how to save water — HERE.
Here is what some city agencies will do to conserve water during the Drought Warning:
- DSNY: Suspend street flushing activities.
- NYPD/FDNY: Assist in closing illegally opened hydrants.
- Parks Department: Limit water use for fountains and golf courses, and stop providing make-up water for artificial ponds and lakes, unless they are fish or wildlife habitats.
- NYCHA/HPD: Requesting plumbing leak surveys and completing subsequent repair work.
- MTA: Reduce train washing.
A Drought Warning is a second of three levels of water conservation declarations that the city can make. A Drought Emergency is the final declaration, which would come with even stricter water conservation measures.
The dry conditions have also led to hundreds of brush fires in recent weeks within the five boroughs.
There is rain forecast for Thursday, but no other day in the immediate future.
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So, what about maintenance people hosing down the sidewalk for an hour every single day? Is that OK? And if it’s not, how do we report them? 311 is a joke, it will take them 4 days to look into it and that’s ridiculous, and it’s not a 911 emergency. So what then?
I came specifically to make this comment. Thanks for writing it.
They should fine buildings who direct their doormen/janitors/supers to hose down the sidewalk on a daily basis. A total, irrational, and hard-to justify waste of a precious resource. Should be easy to implement: have the traffic police who incessantly walk the streets issue these summonses.
they’re not hosing down pee for an hour.
The reason they hose down the street in front of their buildings is that people let their dogs pee there or poop there and it really smells. Please curb your dogs.
I saw a woman let her dog pee right in the doorway of a store.
This time of year they also do it to get leaves off of the sidewalk and into the street. They should blow the leaves into the tree pits along the fronts of buildings or use leaf blowers (YES, I KNOW how annoying those are), or sweep them up, to make some use of them.
It takes a drought for NYCHA to finally do plumbing repairs??? Good grief.
Hey pet owners, don’t let your dogs pee directly in front of the door to your building, it will reduce the need for maintenance staff to hose down the sidewalk. “Curb your dog” mean have them pee in the street, not the sidewalk.
Dog owners can’t always control where their dogs pee, especially those dogs who are elderly. My husband and I used to steer our dog toward the curb, but, regardless of her chosen pee place, we always carried around a bottle of tap water, pouring the water over the urine to dilute it and hopefully to wash away the smell. Some people passing by even stopped to thank us, which was nice.
It’s not just pee that’s the problem. If all dog owners picked up their dogs’ poop then there would be less need for sidewalk cleaning. I walk past multiple piles every day on the UWS.
We need to aggressively shame people who let their dogs relieve themselves in inappropriate places.
Yes, it originally meant bring your dog to the curb/street to go to the bathroom. Now it’s mostly understood to mean clean up after your dog.
Fwiw, I can’t imagine how safe it is for dogs to pee in the street all the time.
Many waiters continue to refill water glasses before they are asked to. Not a good conservation measure.
It took him long enough.
The droughts decades ago were caused by overconsumption. The city used about a third more water then than it does now. This drought is from lack of rain, or global warming.
[…] 106 acres, while reaching depths of 40 feet. It is filled by water from upstate aqueducts, which, as previously reported, are below their typical threshold due to a drought caused by the lack of […]