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Boston now in severe drought

Massachusetts drought map

The latest Massachusetts drought map, released this morning, has extended the Massachusetts "severe drought" zone to include the city of Boston.

Some 75% of the state is now considered to be having a a moderate to severe drought - and 40% of the state is considered to be having a severe drought. The rest of the state is considered "abnormally dry," except for Nantucket, which remains OK. On Jan. 1, none of the state was in severe drought.

As of July 1, the Quabbin was at 90.1% of its peak capacity.

The National Weather Service says we could get some heavy rain Friday, mostly south of the turnpike.

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Comments

It's been really hard this year to maintain a vegetable garden. I'm increasing my watering to three times per week at 5am which has helped since the garden is getting about 1.5 inches of water per week that way.

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I have to water every night along with new perennials that were just planted. I dread the water bill come September..

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Some towns in Middlesex county are now going to a complete outside watering ban due to shortages. RIP herb garden.

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You don't have to water. Your landscaping plants aren't needed.

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Don't be so sure. See other comment.

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Most people don't plant edibles, they just want to water their bushes, shrubs, flowers, or grass. Either way, plant drought resistant crops, or make do without since there's not enough water for everyone to have a yard full of those edible plants.

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While I do plant many things I eat; herbs and veggies, I am thinking of more succulents next year. They can make a garden quite interesting.

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That's cool. Depending on the water situation, you might be required to water them less.

If you care at all about sustainability, it would be the prudent thing to do. A lot of people talk about sustainability, but talking about it is easier than making small changes to conserve themselves.

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Green and growing things mitigate the heat during heat waves. We need these landscaped spaces kept alive during unusual dry times.

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Then plant drought resistant crops.

Without water, a heat island won't even be a consideration.

Using more water to on decorative plants to prevent a heat island makes no sense.

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Your "decorative plants" are overwhelmingly perennials. You don't just up and dig in a new set of shrubs in a dry year -- and if you did, what happens when La Nina comes along next year?

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Then do without your plants and let your lawn grow brown. You have to live within the limits of natural resources.

If there is another drought there would be even less water.

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You are a bloody goddamned ninny. Way to completely miss the point.

If there is another drought there would be even less water.

And if a piano falls from the sky and lands on your head, you won't have to worry about that unsightly point any more.

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Then do without your plants

We are receiving prescriptive landscaping advice from a pure acolyte of green who doesn't even farking know the difference between annuals and perennials.

Pathetic moralistic simp doesn't even understand the microclimate meteorological relationships between heat and rainfall! (hint: heat islands get less rain due to the heat raising the capacity of the air to hold water).

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More one sided name calling. However, it's seems to be something you do a lot of.

Perennials grow every year. However, if there isn't enough water you need to reduce your watering.

Now you are again trying to make the unreasonable argument that we need to use more water, when there's a drought, to preserve decorative landscaping plants. That heat islands get less rainfall doesn't mean you should be using more water over the long term if there's a need to conserve.

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Heat islands get less rain, but your plants aren't making much of a difference. Responsible people can conserve, but you can even stop washing you car.

Seems like you would just rather call people names.

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At least, drought resistant things that will actually GROW in this CLIMATE ZONE. I ripped out my absurd front lawn patches and xeriscaped them two decades ago.

THIS IS THE FIRST TIME IN 20 YEARS THAT I HAVE HAD TO WATER MY PERENNIALS.

This is an anomalous situation. It will take far more effort, carbon, and water to reestablish these plantings than simply just fucking watering them a little - like once a week.

You clearly know very little outside of reading TreeHugger and Grist. Being "green" is not a goddamn religion where only the "rituals" matter. Your comments here demonstrate a fundamental drought of understanding about horticulture and climate change.

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pollinators and other wildlife could use a plant or two. It makes sense in general to have plants that don't need regular watering. But in tough times, they could use a little help.

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Too many little makers are trapping the water down deep in the earth. Anyone have some Water of Life?

Seriously though, I'm watering my plants a lot and they still look rough.

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You should be cutting back if you care about the environment.

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My water comes from the enormous Quabbin reservoir which is nowhere close to stressed and has capacity for 50 years of growth maybe? If I was in a non-quabbin district or lived in Ca or AZ or NV, you'd have a point... But not in Boston.

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"My water comes from the enormous eservoir which is nowhere close to stressed and has capacity for 50 years of growth maybe?"

When there's a drought, more places are sometimes required to rely on that supply when their local supply runs out. There are more important uses than your plants.

A drought shows who's really willing to make some small concessions you conservation. You own admission of unnecessarily watering your plants a lot says otherwise. It's not practical for everyone to continue using water as if there is no drought.

Either you care about sustainability and reasonable cutbacks or you don't. You can make all the self rationalization you want. Plenty of people have been making cutbacks. Some feel that the need to conserve doesn't apply to them because "their plants are different" or "they just us a little extra" and it doesn't matter.

"50 years of growth maybe?"

Not really, depends on what kind of growth and how much. Your numbers are not based on anything quantitative.

http://wwlp.com/2016/07/26/dry-weather-makes-state-watch-water-levels-cl...

"is about 6 and half feet below capacity, or 88% full. Each year it can differ, but it is lower than average."

It's below capacity and below average.

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You haven't seen our yard.

You are painting a doom and gloom scenario where one isn't warranted yet. Yes, conservation is good (and the thing that never got as much attention as the cleanup of Boston Harbor was all the work the MWRA and the BWSC did to save water by replacing leaky mains). No, we are not California.

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The point is that it's always good and necessary to conserve and plant for future needs, especially in a time of drought. Some people are making a lot of comments that they can and should to continue to water their plants for all sorts of irrelevant reasons that just amount to more water consumption in a time of drought.

Already, a lot of places have no extra water for outdoor uses. If there's even more growth, or people don't change their usage, there's going to be even more need for conservation.

Yes, there are places with worse droughts, but there's still a need to conserve and be considerate of our own environment.

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to do your part? Skipping showers? Installing a gray water system? Always curious about the habits of anons who like to get all judgey with other people.

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Indoor uses are considered far more necessary in times of drought, and generally use far less water than the outdoor uses and landscaping that some people don't want to be asked to cut back on for whatever irrational reason they come up with.

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An outdoor irrigation system is like having many faucets going at once.

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Already, a lot of places have no extra water for outdoor uses. If there's even more growth, or people don't change their usage, there's going to be even more need for conservation.

You're talking about long-term issues, and there is no indication of long-term drought in this part of the world -- rather the opposite. It's a problem for other regions, not so much for ours, and your proposed solutions (insofar as they have any clarity at all) are geared around a long-term problem that simply does not exist here.

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You are inserting straw mans and irrelevant arguments to make a point.

The post said long term growth, not drought, you misrepresented. There was another comment that suggested there's plenty of room for growth. It's not clear how much. Since there's already wide spread conservation restrictions with the current amount of demand, there would be even more need for conservation with more growth.

Additionally, you seem to suggest that long term planning unnecessary, and that's not really a good position either.

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You are inserting straw mans and irrelevant arguments to make a point.

No I'm not. You're being a complete and total ninny by telling people to get rid of perennial plantings that were planted before the drought. You're just being a pill.

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According to the MWRA website it is at 90% which is still considered normal operations.

http://www.mwra.state.ma.us/monthly/watersupplystatus.htm

We're having a dry spell here but seeing as the rainfall in MA is a year round event, this is again, nothing like say the Southwest or CA where development has gone well over local natural water capacity. This is absolutely nothing like the situation in SoCal where water used for golf courses or mansions isn't available to other people, etc... Or for example the 60s where the Quabbin was at 50% - that's a real drought event.

I feel like you are just trying to glom onto other people's real drought problems to clutch your pearls. If I don't water my plants etc,... then that water is just going to sit in the Quabbin, unused as someone outside of the MWRA doesn't have legal access to it. Perhaps that will change if drought is the new norma, but I kind of doubt it.

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What you posted is from the start of the month. It says so at the start of what you linked to. The other link is from two days ago and says it's below average and 88%.

That would used by other towns if it's needed. More growth means more towns are going to share resources.

You sound like you just don't like the suggestion that you should change your unnecessary outdoor watering habits a little because now is the time to show that you are willing to make some small concessions to sustainability. A lot of people have brown lawns and have chosen to cut back.

Your argument is basically rather than preserve a little extra if it's needed, you just want to use whatever you want because you don't want to be inconvenienced.

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It's below capacity and below average.

I suggest you actually learn about the things that you are preaching about before commenting here again.

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This is a time to really prove how much you can make small cut backs and show you care about the environment by watering less.

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A lot of us eat our landscapes. It cuts back on the need to buy produce brought in on fossil-fuel powered trucks - whether from CA or even a MA farm.

Also benefiting from not-dead edible & ornamental gardens: pollinators, birds, small mammals - the list goes on. Wildlife "damage" is staggering this year - possible due to rabbits, mice, voles, moles & the like are devouring all kinds of things this year that they don't normally eat - probably because they need the produce & hydration more than we humans do.

I live in Somerville. We're overbuilt! It happened here decades ago - now even a little bit cooler due to tiny green spaces helps all of us.

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Most regular gardeners mind their water usage. I for one never water more than a dozen times per season - except this year!

We do eat our crops - hey - ever heard of the Dust Bowl?

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You haven't taken any polling to know that.

Basically you are saying you water more when there's even less supply. That's not sustainable or conservation minded.

Your plants aren't unique. If you aren't cutting back just because you feel your plants overrule the need to conserve, then you don't really care about the drought.

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I"ve posted a link showing that the agency in charge of the water district shows the water levels are at the top operational level. How about you show some public data showing that there is a serious threat to our water supply that the MWRA is missing and that we should in fact be on water restrictions in Boston speciicallly?

Standard disclosures - I believe in climate change, greenhouse gasses, etc... I just have some faith in our public water administration to know what they are doing, unlike you. Why are you so convinced they are wrong?

EDIT - also, why no anon comments on the tree watering post? Is a publicly watered plant OK with you?

I'd bet $1m that this anon is a Jill Stein sheeple.

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The other link is from two days ago and shows it's below average.

Tree watering is a red herring compared to the relevant thread discussion about private lawns and plants.

Your comment about the water management is also not what the post is about. It's about if you care to cut back on watering a little in a drought since you said you care about the environment , or just want to complain about it.

The end of your post isn't worth addressing.

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I do like you you're telling me what my post is about. I thought it was about the drought to which I responded that I've watered my plants more than usual this year. I don't buy at all your premise that my water usage going from 400 to 500 cu ft a month is a serious environmental impact at this point in time.This based on the recommendations of the professionals who's very core job it is to maintain the water supplies for a huge metropolis. Household usage like showers, sewage, laundry and industrial usage are the dominant consumers of water, not my window boxes.

If the experts aren't telling me cut back usage (again minimal, I'm not running a trout farm here), why the urgency? Fine- we're at 88% - that means that over the past 8 months of drought, the water level has more or less remained stable as the level on 1/1 was 88%. So even in the drought, the water levels are stable on average. If after the winter/fall is over and we're entering into the next outdoor plant season at a continued drought, then that's the time for alarm.

BTW I'm going away on vacation for two weeks with my water using family. That will move my water consumption out of district for two weeks - ergo I will likely be using less water than you for August. I win?

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You haven't taken any polling to know that.

You haven't either. Run along now, grownups are talking.

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You can't effectively start your topic with a title like that then claim it's the grownups talking.

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The professionals are in the house and we know that you are completely skewing things to make your moralizing points.

Get along now.

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"A lot of us eat our landscapes."

Most of you don't, and the poster did not any indication that they planned to. Either way, you need to cut back if there is a restriction. Your self rationalization about your own backyard plants does negate the larger issue. If everyone had plants in their back yards and kept watering during a drought, there would be an even bigger problem of using too much water.

"Wildlife "damage" is staggering this year"

None of that matters if you use too much water that there's not enough for more important things.

"I live in Somerville. We're overbuilt! It happened here decades ago - now even a little bit cooler due to tiny green spaces helps all of us."

Green spaces do not need to have plants that require active watering. There are drought resistant crops.

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That should say does not negate.

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If you are using too much water at a time when everyone else could not sustainably use the same amount that you do, then your garden is not helping the local environment. You aren't an environmentally friendly exception since there's not enough water for everyone else to do the same thing. You can have cooler plants that don't require as much water.

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For an anon, you certainly have a lot to say but we're hearing very few constructive ideas and a lot if pious finger-wagging. Honestly, you make me want to just go turn on the tap and let it run for a while.

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In April when most gardeners are planning and starting seeds, we all should have predicted the drought and planted drought-resistant crops? Thanks for the tip--can you tell us whether we're going to get a lot of snow this winter?

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And there's plenty of drought resistant options for grass, turf, and shrubs.

Your plants aren't really any different than anyone else's and don't use water differently. There's a drought. If you care at all about that, then make small conservation efforts.

There isn't enough water in many communities for everyone to have a garden, and that's why there's many out door water restrictions. Some people just don't care, despite all the talk about conservation and sustainability they do.

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If you are using too much water at a time when everyone else could not sustainably use the same amount that you do, then your garden is not helping the local environment.

And if your mother had wheels instead of legs, she'd be a bicycle. Prove your "if"; until you have, STFU.

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There's less of a resource, that means there's a need to conserve it. The rest of your post doesn't help you at all. Yeah there's a drought, and everyone needs to cut back a little on outdoor use, regardless of it you want to complain about that.

A lot of people really don't want to cut back on unnecessary water usage and when it affects their own garden. The find all sorts of reasons to explain why THEIR GARDEN and THEIR OUTDOOR WATER USAGE is different and somehow necessary or less unsustainable. Many of the same people talk about sustainability for all sorts of things, but refuse to change their water usage happens themselves.

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Is eating your landscape the same thing as chewing the scenery?

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I can't make small cutbacks because my normal water usage is already extremely low. We are set up to use little water as it is - you can't cut back or water plants less if you have plants that you don't usually need to water! The drought means that I need to provide a little water to plants that do not normally require water.

I have a 5 person household that already uses only a 1/4 to 1/3 of the typical household of this size - and that is with teenage boy showers!

In a typical year, I rarely water my garden and typically do not water my perennials at all.

We use so little water that our city tried to bill us for "normal" usage going back several years assuming that our meter was broken. We had to threaten lawsuits to make them give us our money back after they changed out the meter and guess what? Low usage.

So, no, I can't make "small cut backs", except for not washing my car while watering my plants once a week - something that I've never had to do - and hand watering about 30 square feet of garden 2-3 times a week (actually, just the tomatoes - the beans withered in the heat, the rosemary is completely content and the jalapenos have been holding a fiesta this year).

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I love the old-school way they do the drought maps web site. We don't need this layered webservices crap.

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To put things in perspective, there are parts of the Charles River that you can now cross without getting wet.

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we know about the Mass. Ave bridge buddy.

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I think my last time was in November.

Wait, what?

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More rain is seriously needed. Here's hoping that happens before the season ends.

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Is the color palette on on the map closer to french toast, or draught beer?

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Absolutely toast.

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The thirst is real.

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Part of the problem is the heat - hot air holds more water and doesn't let it go. That's how it could be so painfully humid and not rain.

I'm still thinking about what one of the NWS guys said to me - what it will take to break this drought is days of steady rain - not downpours. Apparently, the rainfall totals for the year are misleading - downpours run off and don't contribute as much for soil moisture as steady rains do. We have had mostly downpours.

The other thing he said: it is going to take something with a name to sit on us for several days (preferably a degraded tropical storm) before we can even begin to break out of this drought.

The Atlantic Hurricane Nursery is off of it's July lunch break and spinning up trouble again. Maybe we will get lucky and get rain without ruin (and waves without mayhem).

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That's why we need to conserve what we have for the most important uses. Some people feel they don't need to conserve because their plants are more important. A lot of people talk about conservation, but when it's time to conserve themselves they want to make excuses and keep their plants green.

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Boston and many of its suburbs get their water from the Quabbin Reservoir, which is still pretty full. It's suburbs that rely on groundwater wells that are having to enact watering bans.

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Those place frequently say the reservoir is their backup when the local supply runs out.

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Considering water issues, you know that the MWRA isn't just going to turn on the spigot for non-member towns like that. No need to invent strawmen.

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If there was a need it would be strongly considered as one of the few options.

Many operate under the assumption that it is their backup. There are already towns that have complete outdoor water bans this year.

The point is that we should be conserving so we don't have to.

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That is pretty clear to me, but, as I noted in an earlier thread, I do have some professional involvement with this mess and have seen and understand the evidence presented in the interagency consensus process.

Meanwhile, the MWRA can only pump to communities that it has connections to. Which is its member communities and a few others like Winchester, with which it has specific connections and agreements. They can't just run a hose over to their neighbor's yard.

Here's a list and map of towns and which ones can get emergency supply from MWRA. The only one that may be falling into the emergency supply category soon is Worcester. Communities not on this list that are in tough shape, and people on well water do not get MWRA backup.

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People in Massachusetts worried about "drought" are people in Georgia worrying their heads off about a blizzard in the forecast. It seems like a big deal, but it's really just a blip, and it's gone before you know it.

You don't know what a real drought is until you've lived in the desert.

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With more growth there's more demand for water.

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With more adult oversight over our water supply (i.e., the creation of the MWRA), we got better maintenance of mains and conservation efforts that dramatically reduced the amount of water pumped out of the Quabbin.

No, don't take my word for it. Look at this MWRA chart: In 1980, the MDC was pumping out roughly 320 million gallons of water a day - well above the Quabbin's "safe" yield (defined as "300 million gallons per day of water even during periods of extended drought"). By 2014, the MWRA was pumping out a bit more than 200 million gallons of water a day - well below that safe yield.

2015? The MWRA shows average daily supply of 206 million gallons a day in 2015.

Again, conservation is good, especially in what appears to be an increasingly dynamic weather system thanks to climate change, but stop making it sound like we're one flush or one garden bed away from disaster when we're not.

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Not disagreeing with you on the main points. However, a lot of people just seem to assume that there's plenty of room for growth with a lot of extra capacity. It seems better to always maintain a large surplus rather than just building to whatever limit we can reach.

People here were trying to imply that they were being more environmentally friendly by using extra water in a drought for all sorts of reasons. That doesn't really make sense either.

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http://www.mwra.state.ma.us/monthly/wsupdat/archivequabbinlevels.htm

August 1:

2016 - @ 90% (estimated)
2015 - 94.5%
2014 - 95.5%
2013 - 95%
2012 - 92%
2011 - 96%
2010 - 94%
2009 - 100+%

So the water levels are lower than average, yes. On average, they are @ 94% of where we would expect which doesn't seem to be enough of a shift to warrant your dire warnings? Again, in the 1960s, the levels were @ 50% - that's a real crisis.

That's also ignoring the fact that with the likely emergence of a La Nina pattern, the east coast hurricane forecast is higher than the previous 3 years so it's way more likely that we get a heavy rain event which would easily refill a lot of reservoirs.

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I'll admit it irks me to no end when I see an automated irrigation sprinkler going in the rain.

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There's no need to put it in quotes, because the drought is documented.

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Leaving the "water the plants/let them get crispy" debate aside, a lot of water can be saved by taking navy showers. Saves both water & natural gas.

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I put in a microclover and mixed fescue lawn earlier this year. It didn't take completely so I plan to overseed it again this fall. But the bare patches are well hidden in the 4 inch heighe rand it is substantially greener even this week than the majority of the lawns in my neighborhood which do not use microclover and more bluegrass than fescue. Microclover and fescue along with good watering practices (2 deep waterings per week) can go a long ways towards limiting outdoor water use for turfgrass and still have it be hardier and better looking than other traditional lawns.

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Using my moderator's prerogative here and closing this thread, because we've gotten to the point where nothing new is being said, and there's not really a need to keep repeating the same statements.

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