Authority’s Plea: Shorten Those Showers

Yes, New Haven is in a drought.

Officials from the South Central Connecticut Regional Water Authority took to City Hall Wednesday evening to remind us about that, and to urge people to take action.

At a meeting of the Environmental Advisory Council, Rose Gavrilovic and Tom Barger of the authority broke down the severity of drought, which has plagued Connecticut since the summer. The state issued a drought advisory in June; Gov. Dannel Malloy bumped up the concern to the state’s first ever drought watch for six of eight counties — counting New Haven.

The RWA is now asking residents to cut down their water usage by 15 percent. Currently, the reservoir system that serves New Haven is only 53 percent full, compared to the average 66 percent capacity it holds at the end of October. And that figure is continuing to drop, Gavrilovic said.

“Every indication so far is that the drought is going to last at least through January,” she added.

While the water authority has tried to get the word out about water conservation before — with messages on TV weather segments, for example — it is working on driving across the point repeatedly this dry season.

People can cut down on their water usage by way of shorter showers, running dishwashers only when full, turning the water off while brushing teeth and any number of other simple methods enumerated on the water authority’s website.

But the problem is getting people to take the drought seriously, Barger said.

“It just doesn’t seem like an emergency to people,” Gavrilovic said.

“It’s almost as if you ask people to conserve, and they go, ​‘Oh my goodness, we’re going to run out of water. I better get this lawn watered before water runs out from the faucet,’” Barger added. ​“It’s almost like hoarding. It’s unbelievable.”

The authority is also employing a visual tactic: before-and-after photos of reservoir levels to put a sense of urgency on the drought itself.

“What are the chances this carries through the winter?” City Engineer Giovanni Zinn asked at the presentation. ​“How wet of a winter do we need to catch up?”

About 15 inches of rain in a month’s time would restore the parched reservoir system to its usual capacity, Gavrilovic responded. (The city averages about 46 inches a year.)

“Well, if we ever get 15 inches in a month let us know, because we have stormwater studies to do,” Zinn said.

The council spent some time considering other ways to underscore the urgency of the drought — perhaps by adding notices to water bills, for instance. (Tough, since water bills are quarterly, not monthly, Gavrilovic said.)

Iris Kaminski, who currently teaches a course on water management at Yale’s School of Public Health, suggested setting a cap on the amount of water used used each month, and then charging more for any water used over that amount; or providing an incentive for people to use less.

The RWA has floated the idea in recent meetings, Gavrilovic responded, but would need approval from governing boards to carry such a plan out.

“Here it’s kind of the illusion that we have a lot of water,” mused Kaminski, who found out about the drought only recently. ​“It’s fixable if you tweak the policies. You could catch it now.”

In the meantime, residents can just simply do their small part.

“It’s conservation, not elimination,” Barger said. ​“Common sense stuff.”