Maine DWP Update: Drought Preparedness for Public Water Systems

Drought Preparedness for Public Water Systems

This map released by the United States Drought Monitor on May 27, 2021, shows more than 54% of the State of Maine as “Abnormally Dry”.

The Maine Drought Task Force has recently advised that surface and groundwater levels statewide are largely below normal. And the Maine CDC Drinking Water Program (DWP) is currently receiving reports of low water from public water systems (PWSs) in southern and coastal areas. With this in mind, the DWP suggests that PWSs, particularly in areas currently marked as “Abnormally Dry” on the map, begin to take drought preparedness steps, and offers the following tips to aid systems in preparing for potential drought-related issues:

• Monitor your water supply at least weekly by taking readings of surface water or groundwater levels, and keep up-to-date with local and regional drought conditions;
  
  
• Update your Emergency Response Plan for potential drought contingencies;
  
  
• Prepare employees and board members for a possible drought situation;
  
  
• Communicate and begin contingency planning with mutual aid partners and emergency responders such as your local emergency manager and/or county emergency management agency;
  
  
• Identify and communicate with critical customers, including your largest water users;
  
  
• Look into implementing voluntary or mandatory water conservation measures; and
  
  
• Create outreach materials for the public on conservation efforts and activities. 

These tips are also available on the Drinking Water Program’s Drought webpage. For questions regarding droughts, or to report a water shortage or outage, please contact your DWP Public Water System Inspector, or call our main phone number at 207-287-2070. And thank you for all you do to provide safe drinking water 24/7.

 

URLs

• United States Drought Monitor: https://droughtmonitor.unl.edu/CurrentMap/StateDroughtMonitor.aspx?ME
  
  
• NERFC Precipitation Totals and Departures from Normal, NOAA's National Weather Service: https://www.weather.gov/nerfc/watersupply
  
  
• EPA Incident Action Checklist - Drought: https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2015-06/documents/drought_0.pdf
  
  
• EPA Drought & WaterSense: https://www.epa.gov/watersense/drought-watersense
  
  
• Maine CDC Drinking Water Program Homepage: medwp.com