Eighty-three percent of Connecticut is under “moderate drought” conditions, according to the federal government’s U.S. Drought Monitor.
Ranked just above “abnormally dry,” moderate drought includes some crop damage, water shortages and low streams and reservoirs, and the request for voluntary water-use restrictions, according to Drought Watch, which is produced by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
As a result, Bridgeport-based public water supply company Aquarion, which has 625,000 Connecticut customers, requested Tuesday that customers shut down their sprinklers and irrigation systems for the season.
Aquarion said water demand is more than 12 percent higher than it was at the same time last year, while its Fairfield County reservoirs are less than half full.
The next Drought Monitor update will be released Thursday.
