Drought Warning For Baked Apple

January 28, 2002 / 4:25 PM EST / AP

City officials issued a drought warning Monday, cautioning New Yorkers to cut back water use voluntarily to protect dwindling reservoirs.

A drought emergency could be declared as early as April, triggering mandatory restrictions, if dry weather and insufficient conservation keep water stores at unusually low levels.

"If you've got a tissue, put it into a wastebasket," not in the toilet, said Joel A. Miele Sr., commissioner of the city's Environmental Protection Department. And turn off the tap while brushing teeth or shaving.

New York's three main reservoir systems sit at about 40 percent of capacity, less than half of their normal January levels. City scientists calculated Monday that the probability of reservoirs refilling by June has dropped below 33 percent, Miele said, although rain at midweek could ease the situation.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg told state lawmakers in Albany on Monday that warm weather has meager precipitation soaking into the earth, rather than running off over frozen ground toward reservoirs. A lack of hurricanes and heavy storms has lowered the reservoirs even further.

"If you get to June 1 and it ain't filled, then you have a problem," Bloomberg said.

Conservation seemed to have only partially taken hold Monday as New Yorkers enjoyed temperatures around 58 to 60 degrees.

Customers flocked to the Carz-A-Poppin car wash in Greenwich Village. "Since Friday, we've been doing pretty well," owner Jay Sherman said.

Landscape architect Scott Ahlborn said evergreens and ivy plants need watering; wild plants also are parched.

"Those plants will suffer dramatically and they're liable to succumb to disease and death because they will not have had enough water," agreed Kim Tripp, vice president for horticulture and living collections at New York Botanical Garden in the Bronx.

City environmental officials said gardeners should water in the cooler morning or evening hours and avoid unnecessary watering.

Jeffrey Gjaferoj, a superintendent on the Upper West Side, said he had stopped washing the sidewalks outside his building.

"My super in my building thinks it's OK to hose the sidewalks twice a day," countered Judith Martin, an office manager at the Claremont Riding Academy.

"I was on the East Side recently in the rain and some guy was hosing the sidewalk."