New York City Drought Warning Declared for First Time in Over 20 Years

Mayor Eric Adams on Monday elevated New York City’s drought watch to a drought warning, the last step before declaring a drought emergency, which would come with mandatory water restrictions.

The warning extends beyond the city to include 10 additional New York State counties, including much of the Hudson Valley. In the rest of the state, which is also experiencing abnormally dry conditions, Gov. Kathy Hochul has declared a drought watch.

Although no restrictions are required under a drought warning, officials are urging residents to voluntarily conserve water, while water suppliers focus on contingency plans. The city’s reservoirs, which are usually around 79 percent full at this time of year, are down to about 60 percent of their total capacity, and the inch of rain forecast in the coming days will not be enough to replenish them, officials said. New York City has received less than a quarter-inch of rain since Oct. 1, according to the National Weather Service.

One such contingency plan involves the pause of the Delaware Aqueduct repair project, a $2 billion, eight-month initiative, planned for decades, that required the shutdown of a crucial tunnel responsible for transporting about half the city’s water supply. Since repairs began in early October, access to four major reservoirs in the Catskill Mountains has been cut off.

Now, the mayor plans to halt the construction project and reopen the aqueduct so the water from those four reservoirs can flow into New York again.

“The ongoing and historic lack of rainfall, both in the city and in the upstate watershed where our reservoirs are located, has become more critical,” said Rohit T. Aggarwala, the city’s climate chief and the commissioner of the Department of Environmental Protection, which oversees the city’s water supply system.