Town Board considers drought procedures: No mandatory restrictions … yet

The Town Board is looking to adopt criteria and procedures for dealing with drought situations. It’s a subject the Water Advisory Committee recommended to a previous Board as a means of taking politics out of the decision of when to declare specific water use restrictions based on specific circumstances.

The plan hasn’t changed markedly, and Town Engineer Joe Finora told the Board at its Tuesday work session it’s time for members to review the recommendations and procedures and adopt them. At the same time, Mr. Finora said it’s a document that can always undergo changes if necessary.

What has changed is the ability to have ongoing readings of water levels at test wells instead of a monthly measurement done by the United States Geological Survey. The WAC would be charged with evaluating the data and the seasonal drought outlook, paying particular attention to the “big four” test wells — Goat Hill, Menantic, Manwaring and Congdon Road  — to determine stages of concern.

Current water level readings in test wells are below their seasonal averages, putting Shelter Island at the base level of “guarded.” At that level, voluntary efforts to restrict water use are advisable.

Councilman Jim Colligan said Islanders and visitors should always be attentive to conserving water use.  “It’s all about responsible citizenship,” Mr. Colligan said.

That calls for watching well water levels over the course of the next month or two. If readings continue to drop, moving to a “warning” level, some mandatory restrictions on water use would kick in.

A list of voluntary and mandatory restrictions appears on the Town website at shelterislandtown.us. Hit the tab for Committees and move to the Water Advisory Committee tab. The listing posted there is for drought criteria and outlines what would be voluntary and what would be mandatory at various levels of concern.

The third stage is “emergency” and would carry further mandatory restrictions; the final level is “disaster” and, of course, would be the toughest of mandatory restrictions.

There are concerns the Board wants to discuss, including a means of communicating the well water readings to the public and ways to enforce those restrictions that become mandatory.

Councilwoman BJ Ianfolla suggested posting the readings on the front page of the town website on an ongoing basis.

Mr. Colligan stressed the importance of people concerned about the environment to inform their neighbors of restrictions and hope most would be responsible about protecting the water supply.

It’s possible the Board could vote to adopt the recommendations from the WAC at Friday’s Town Board meeting.

Supervisor Gerry Siller said he wants the Board to discuss the use of irrigation systems. That doesn’t have to delay adopting the drought provisions, but should be examined. Years ago, a previous Board talked about eliminating the systems, and they were to be banned as of 2013.

But when the date neared, the decision to act didn’t result in ending their use. Now, almost 10 years later, Mr. Siller said there are 124 of the grandfathered systems, and another 60 that have been put in with use of cisterns that were supposed to be filled with trucked-in water.

Concerns have been raised about the wear and tear on roadways from trucking-in water, and whether there might be a means of capturing rainwater to fill the cisterns.

Mr. Colligan said he believes that some cisterns are being illegally filled using on-Island water.