A drought is one of those emergencies that requires us all to act like grown-ups: No, you can’t see the peril approaching with your naked eyes. It’s not dramatic, like a tornado, but authorities and scientists are shouting alarms from the rooftops, and it’s time for us all to pull ourselves together and act collectively to avert the worst.
As reported in this week’s paper, Suffolk County is in the midst of the worst drought in decades and, not only that, it’s coming at a terrible time of year. It is much more common for a drought emergency to be declared by the Suffolk County Water Authority in the fall after a long, hot summer, but this one arrived in spring and we are now heading into summer — and into a heat wave and the July Fourth weekend, when water demand reaches fever pitch — with water levels dangerously low.
Dan DuBois, speaking for the water authority, put the danger bluntly: “Without immediate reductions in water use, pressure drops will occur, compromising emergency fire response.”
According to the Raindrop App, East Hampton is more than six inches below its average annual rainfall. Those experts who spoke to The Star said that is a real aberration. Compounding the problem here in the town is the fact that some water authority wells in have been shut down following the discovery that they had been contaminated with “forever chemicals” after a 2023 fire at the East Hampton Battery Storage Facility on Cove Hollow Road.
It’s not a disaster if water pressure drops in your spare bathroom when your weekend guests are trying to wash sand off their feet after the fireworks. It’s a disaster when your house, or your neighbor’s, burns down because we have all been, collectively, too selfish to reduce the frequency with which we’re watering our perfect Hamptons lawns.
What should you do? Turn off your outdoor irrigation temporarily. Just do it. East Hampton Town has turned off outdoor watering until the holiday weekend is over and the extreme heat emergency has dissipated; you should, too. Ask your employer to do the same.
Second, going forward, make sure your irrigation system has a “smart” controller that actually responds to need, rather than a dumb one that runs on a basic fixed schedule. A modern irrigation system should have a smart controller — depending on the model, watering based on weather, plant needs, soil conditions, and sometimes local watering rules — rather than the clock. If yours is outmoded, get a new one.
Finally, talk about this hidden drought. Make sure your friends and neighbors know there is a silent danger posing a threat to our wonderful volunteer fire departments’ ability to suppress fires. Make the message clear as you gather around the grill at that Independence Day barbecue: Don’t be a water hog.