After the example of New York City, on November 1st Westchester's Drought Emergency status and its associated mandatory water restrictions were reduced to a Drought Warning.  Under a Drought Warning, voluntary water conservation is encouraged but there are no regulations that homeowners are required to follow.  Lifting the restrictions, which have been in place since April 1, will affect 1 million upstate users of the New York City water system (Westchester County gets 85% of its water from the New York City reservoir system).  Homeowners are no longer bound to alternative-day, hour-restricted watering, and businesses are no longer bound to their water reduction plans.

The decision comes as New York City Catskill / Delaware water supply reservoirs reach 68% capacity, normal for this time of year.  Reservoir levels have been helped by above-average rainfall during September and October.  Reservoir levels should continue to increase until June when they normally reach capacity.  However, County Executive Andy Spano encourages people to continue conserving water -- "because who knows how much rain and snow we will get this winter, and we don't want to be in the same position we were last year come springtime."

Source: Westchester County Government Website
11/14/02