An Answer to New York’s Prayer for Rain?

Water, you don’t miss it until it’s in short supply.
 
Rainfall has been exceptionally scarce across the tri-state area for the past several months, and government officials in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut are growing concerned about how the lack of rain may affect agriculture and the economy at large. With famers and recreation-lovers praying for rain, it now appears those prayers may finally be answered, albeit from an unlikely source: the Gulf of Mexico.
 
Tri-State Drought
 
The tri-state area has suffered from an almost uninterrupted dry spell over the last several months. On July 15th, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) issued a statewide drought watch for the first time in 14 years. Despite some showers in late July, things didn’t get much better. On August 3rd, the New York DEC issued an official Drought Warning to 22 counties in western New York State.
 
According to a map produced by the National Drought Mitigation Center on August 2nd, nearly all of Connecticut, the majority of New Jersey, and sections of southeast New York are now experiencing “Moderate Drought”. Conditions are the worst in western New York State and right here on Long Island, where a large band of Suffolk County has been experiencing “Severe Drought” continually since August 2nd. The situation got so bad that several public water suppliers went to county officials and had them issue an alert asking residents to cut back on watering their lawns and washing their cars in the early morning – a time when demand for water is highest as people shower and eat before heading to work.
 
Relief on the Way?
 
The situation is fluid — so to speak – but it looks as if Tropical Storm Hermine is taking dead aim at the drought-stricken tri-state area. Earlier projections had the storm passing over Central Florida and riding up the Atlantic Coast, similar to the path taken by Hurricane Sandy. Now it appears that Hermine is going to make landfall on the Florida Panhandle, pass through the Carolinas as a rain-filled tropical depression, before passing over New Jersey and Long Island. We will continue to monitor the situation closely.
 
Anatomy of a Drought
 
Unlike a hurricane, tornado, flash flood or wildfire, droughts are slow and methodical. But they’re no less destructive. These “creeping phenomenon” build gradually as an area experiences less-than-average precipitation over a period of a season or more. Also unlike hurricanes, tornadoes and floods, droughts are the result of natural environmental events (lack of rainfall) as well as human’s demand for, use of, and conservation of water. In other words, human activities can intensify or dampen the impact of a drought.
 
That’s why AWWT is a green-driven company providing green, sustainable technology for wastewater treatment, wastewater disposal, and water recycling right here in Long Island.