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Committee considers criteria for drought: Wildfire dangers need attention

Drought conditions are on the minds of members of the Water Advisory Committee WAC), but not just because January has been particularly dry. Members are rethinking not only how they advise the Town Board to designate stages of drought, but why.

It’s a discussion that has been explored a number of times, most recently at the Jan. 27 WAC meeting.

Total precipitation in January was 1.19 inches. That’s a lot less than typical during the past few years — 8 inches in January 2024; 6 inches in 2023; 4 inches in 2022 and 3 inches in 2021.

“It’s been a dismal January,” member Greg Toner told his colleagues, noting the forecast for the following 10 days did not hold a lot of hope for much precipitation.

Member Lisa Shaw noted there seems to be a reversal of times when the Island gets rain, noting in 2024, heavy rains happened in the spring.

WAC Chairman Peter Grand said it’s important to keep an eye on precipitation amounts.

The amount of precipitation is significant in recharging the Island’s fragile aquifer, but there’s another significant concern that claimed the attention of the committee — fires. In addition to the levels of assessment that are currently used to advise the Town Board of drought conditions to be considered before implementing restrictions, the levels of fire concerns should also be considered.

Drought concerns are measured on a scale from “normal” to “watch,” “warn” and “emergency.” The fire levels  move from “low” to “moderate,” “high,” “very high,” :extreme” and “red flag.” (See John Cronin’s discussion of possible Island wild fires in the Reporter’s Jan. 30 edition.)

Members discussed the importance of getting more data from the United States Geographical Survey (USGS) that tracks well depths month-to-month.

Member Doug Sherrod would like to see more mandatory steps apply to dry conditions with restrictions on lawn and flower watering and car washing. He also wants more attention from the USGS about its agreement to link all 12 test wells to an automated system providing daily readings.

“The Town paid the money; the USGS should perform on their side of the bargain,” Mr. Sherrod said.

There was also discussion of testing for saltwater intrusion into wells and concern about whether there should be different levels of attention to different Island areas. Committee members don’t want to pit one neighborhood against another, but do want attention to varying needs.

In addition to paying attention to the so called “Big Four” wells — Congdon, Manwaring, Goat Hill and Manhanset — members talked about attention to at least four small test wells that could reveal saltwater intrusion issues in areas such as Silver Beach and Near Shore communities.

Among those, they speculated, could be Brander, Shorewood and South Menantic, along with Silver Beach.

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