FAIRFIELD - General Electric Co. continued its expansion into the water treatment technology business Wednesday, announcing a $1.1 billion acquisition of a Massachusetts company.

GE is buying Ionics Inc. of Watertown for $44 a share, in an all-cash transaction. Ionics will be added to GE's Wilton-based GE Infrastructure unit after shareholder and regulatory approvals, which GE expects sometime in 2005.

Jeffrey DeMarrais, a spokesman for GE Infrastructure, said Ionics' desalination technology was one of the company's biggest attractions, because the world's supply of potable drinking water is being stretched thin.

Desalination turns saltwater and other types of fouled water into drinking water. DeMarrais said GE expects the need for this type of technology to grow dramatically in China, India, Africa and the western part of the United States, where a lack of water is becoming a bigger problem.

GE has acquired three water technology companies during the last several years in anticipation of higher demand for water purification systems, he said.

It's too early to tell if the acquisition will cost the Massachusetts firm any jobs as it is bought up, DeMarrais said. But it definitely will not affect employment in Wilton, an administrative facility.  The Ionics acquisition was the company's second billiondollar-plus deal this week...

OTHER G.E. news:
GE announced on Monday the $4.4 billion purchase of CitiGroup's transportation financial services division.  Shares of GE dropped 17 cents to $35.64 in New York Stock Exchange trading Wednesday.

The University of Connecticut Department of Marine Sciences Web site, MYSound, displays water-quality information from seven sensors around
the state. One sensor is in 18 inches of water on the end of the aquarium's boat dock just north of the Stroffolino Bridge.  The aquarium staffer called John Frank, chairman of the city's Shellfish Commission.

Days before the call was made, millions of oyster larvae died unexpectedly in an indoor South Norwalk hatchery. The facility grows fledgling oysters in tanks of water pumped from the river about a quarter-mile downstream from the aquarium, close to Long Island Sound.  Frank has since called state and city agencies to figure out how to stabilize oxygen levels.

"We have found some strange spikes downward that do not make sense. They do not follow the normal biological process," Frank said.  Last month, oxygen content in the river dropped below 2 milligrams per liter seven times, he said. The drops in oxygen levels have lasted for about 15 minutes.
When oxygen levels drop below 1.5 milligrams per liter, fish can die, according to the federal Environmental Protection Agency's Long Island Sound office. When oxygen levels drop below 3 milligrams per liter for four or so days, fish also can suffer.

Oxygen levels are normally higher in the spring than in the height of summer, when levels naturally decline because of water temperature and pollution.  Dick Harris, a director for Westport-based HarborWatch/RiverWatch, which does routine water quality sampling in the Sound, said oxygen levels usually decrease to about 7 or 8 milligrams per liter this time of year.

Archived material from the University of Connecticut's Web site show 19 of the first 21 days of April recorded levels below 6 milligrams of oxygen per liter.  "If its true, a lot of juvenile fish will not make it this spring," said Harris, adding that he doesn't believe the situation is a disaster.  In the next few days, Harris said he will use another oxygen meter to test the water.

Dissolved oxygen levels fluctuate normally throughout the day.  When the sun comes out, microscopic aquatic plants called phytoplankton release oxygen elevating levels of oxygen in water. At night, a reversal occurs as phytoplankton feed on oxygen, lowering its amount.  But recent oxygen levels show wild variations occurring sometimes twice during the night.

At Sargeant's Cove oyster hatchery in the Tallmadge Bros. building on Water Street, the lack of oxygen may have claimed its first victims.  Dave Hopp, an oyster boat skipper who runs the hatchery, said millions of oyster larvae died in four tanks a day after one of the most severe oxygen depletion episodes was recorded April 21.  According to the university graph, at midnight April 20 the oxygen level dipped below 1 milligram per liter. The next day, Hopp pumped river water into four tanks containing the larvae.

A day after that when the free-swimming oysters were examined, 5 million larvae were dead. The usual mortality rate for that size batch is 125,000, Hopp said.  "We don't know if it was due to that," he said. "It just happened to be at the same time. We have lost larvae before -- they are a fragile animal. It just happens sometimes. It could have been food or temperature."  But just in case oxygen could be the culprit, Hopp is purchasing an oxygen meter and will begin testing water pumped into the barrels used to grow oysters.

Frank said he first suspected that the city's wastewater treatment plant was to blame.  But Department of Public Works Director Harold Alvord said the plant is operating well and has not been releasing oxygen-depleted water into the river.  Alvord said he believes the problem is manmade and may be originating from one of the 210 drainpipes that end at the river within the city.

In the past week, Operations Management International, the private company that runs the sewage plant, has begun testing its discharge on an hourly basis.  Levels of oxygen have not dipped below 6 milligrams per liter, said Tom Closter, Health Department chief environmental officer.         Although he has not seen April's figures, Closter said the plant's daily average readings dating from March show the oxygen levels did not go below 6.1 milligrams per liter.

A health department employee was sent out a week ago to test for bacteria, which also can cause oxygen levels to drop.  No elevated readings were recorded, Closter said, adding that the plant is rapidly being ruled out as the cause of the low-oxygen conditions.  But William Ziegler III, who joined with the family of the late Hillard Bloom to create Sargeant's Cove hatchery, said he remains concerned about the sewage plant.

"It's a darn shame that we can't make better use of the facility (treatment plant) to keep the oxygen levels high and the nitrogen levels low. It is a major source of nitrogen," Ziegler said.  But Alvord said nitrogen levels, which lead to the growth of algae which lowers oxygen levels, are very low at the plant.  Closter, Frank and Alvord believe that the low oxygen levels may be the result of someone dumping chemicals in the river. Additional oxygen meters could be placed upstream to better locate the origins of the problem, Closter said.

Frank said city and state are cooperating in the effort to discover the source of the problem.  He said the situation could pose a danger, not only to fish but the oyster and clam business.  "We think of that upper part of the harbor as a natural nursery. A lot of oysters and clams spawn up there and they produce clams and oysters that end up settling or digging into the ground a good deal further downstream. Even though nobody goes clamming up there, we see that as an important part of the shellfish system," Frank said.

Explanation
The bill specifies requirements and restrictions on the abandonment of certain watershed lands and results in state and municipal impact. Passage of this bill will not result in a fiscal impact for the Departments of Public Health or Public Utility Control, as its provisions will not materially alter the agencies' regulatory responsibilities.

Section 1 of the bill may restrict future development activities on certain watershed lands, and correspondingly impact the tax base of any municipality in which such land is located. Passage of this section of the bill would result in potential revenue loss that is not known at this time.

Section 2 of the bill requires entities acquiring certain water companies to grant the state a permanent conservation easement (1) on the lands involved as a condition of the approval of the transfer. It provides that the easement be imposed once the abandonment of the watershed lands being transferred has been approved. To the extent that such an easement is considered a taking of that land, the state would have to compensate the owner for the loss in value of the land. The average bargain sale price for such lands is $5,800 per acre. Fair market value for the same lands is $12,500 per acre, which represents an increase of more than 50%. Passage of this section of the bill would result in potential significant cost to the state. (2)

Section 3 of the bill requires that all economic benefits from such transfers be allocated to ratepayers. Current law requires that these benefits be equally allocated between ratepayers and shareholders.

(1) A permanent conservation easement allows for the preservation and protection of public water supplies and natural resources,
predominantly as natural, scenic or open space lands.

(2) This analysis assumes that the Department of Environmental Protection would be initiating the purchase of any such lands.

Colorado will spend as much as $2 million in the next two years to build a legal war chest shoring up its rights to the drought-plagued Colorado River.  The new initiative comes as Lake Powell and Lake Mead - the river's giant storage ponds - have reached historic lows, triggering anxiety over future supplies from Los Angeles to Denver.

"About a year ago the people at the Colorado Water Conservation Board began sounding the alarm, saying we need to move to protect ourselves, and I agreed," said Russell George, executive director of the Colorado Division of Natural Resources. "Essentially we're building the best legal case that Colorado can have so that we presumably prevail when it comes down to making decisions.

"I think we have a couple of years (before the river's supplies could drop low enough to trigger a demand for more water for Nevada, Arizona and California). But we can't waste time."

The money is being spent on new computer models detailing how the river's supplies will be affected by ongoing drought and on creating a computerized historic archive documenting Colorado's use of the river under the 1922 Colorado River Compact. It also will pay for new legal research to help guide the state in the unlikely event that the lingering drought prompts new claims to Colorado's share of the river's supplies, George said.

In all, seven states have rights to its waters. How much each state gets is outlined in the 1922 Colorado River Compact, a hard-fought document that envisioned plenty for all.

Next week at the annual meeting of all the river's users in Las Vegas, Colorado plans to push to open new talks over long-standing problems on the river surfacing because of the drought and the West's population boom.

"The last 20 years have been a positive period for coming up with imaginative solutions on the river," said Jim Lochhead, a water attorney who advises Colorado cities on river compact issues and a former executive director of the Colorado Division of Natural Resources. "The next 20 years, though, may produce more difficult challenges if we continue to be in a dry cycle and the system continues to go down."

Millions depend on river

Colorado's destiny is intimately tied to the river whose birthplace lies high in the Never Summer Mountains in Rocky Mountain National Park. It supplies roughly half the drinking water 3.6 million Front Range residents use annually, provides water for snowmaking from Winter Park to Vail and irrigates the peach and apple orchards that dot the Western Slope.

All told, roughly 25 million people in the West depend on its liquid bounty.  Nearly a century ago, before computer models could track snowmelt and streamflows, most believed the river's largesse was boundless.

The compact assumed, for instance, the river generated about 20 million acre-feet of water annually. Compact writers divided up 16 million acre-feet of its supplies among the seven states, saying they could argue over the rest later, according to Lochhead.  Experts now believe that surplus never existed and that the river generates 13 million to 13.5 million acre-feet (maf), on average. An acre-foot equals 326,000 gallons, enough to serve up to two urban families for one year.

The seven basin states rely on excess water generated in exceptionally wet years to make up the difference between the 13.5 maf and the 16 maf, with Lake Powell and Lake Mead acting as liquid bank accounts.  But the past five years have been harsh and dry, robbing Powell and Mead of their surpluses, threatening critical electric generating stations, endangering fish and drinking supplies.

How to deal with shortages has never been detailed before, George said. He and others believe all the basin states must move deliberately and calmly to decide how the water will be shared should the drought and the population boom continue.

"Ultimately the goal is to have an understanding among the seven states that everybody is cutting back and not wasting water so that we don't have to get to a true shortage that forces us back into our corners. That's never occurred, but we think it would get really ugly," he said.

3 issues to be resolved

In Colorado that means Front Range cities and Western Slope ski towns must begin planning now for potential cutbacks in their share of the river's supplies, George said.  The state's new water models are designed to help them determine what would happen under a number of different cutback scenarios, with spring snowmelt being the wild card.

For utilities with large storage reservoirs, such as Denver Water and the Northern Colorado Conservancy District, it will likely mean pushing hard to refill their own drought-stressed systems and to safeguard supplies until it's clear that Powell and Mead are beginning to refill, several water officials said.

"Maybe we have three years to accumulate a reserve," said Eric Wilkinson, manager of the Northern Colorado District. The district serves several Front Range cities including Fort Collins, Boulder and Broomfield. "That means we'll want to build an absolutely full (storage system) in case there is a call (for water from the Lower Basin states.)"

In the meantime, Colorado wants three key issues resolved:

• Under the 1922 compact, Mexico is entitled to 1.5 million acre-feet of water, to be delivered from surplus supplies. The Upper Basin was to contribute only in times of shortage. But since 1970, 750,000 acre-feet has been delivered from Lake Powell annually. That means, in Colorado's view, that the Upper Basin has delivered too much water. "That's a fundamental issue that has to be resolved," Lochhead said.

• Colorado also has asked U.S. Secretary of Interior Gale Norton to reduce the historic outflow from Lake Powell, in light of the drought. Reducing the flows from Powell would mean the Upper Basin states could maintain a stronger buffer against a possible demand for extra water from Nevada, Arizona and California.

• And Colorado also wants Arizona to stop storing river water it doesn't need in aquifers, further draining the two giant storage ponds. "We're very concerned about that. We would like to see it fixed right away," George said.

Even if snows come through this winter, most experts believe it will take Powell and Mead years to recover, leaving Colorado and other Upper Basin states vulnerable to demands for more water, particularly if a state of chronic, low-grade drought develops.

John Keys, commissioner of the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, hopes his agency can forestall those demands by carefully evaluating the river's supplies and asking each state to figure out ways to live with less.

"Our biggest fear," Keys said, "is that when this drought breaks, we'll still be short of water."

The issue these days is land, but American Indian claims in Connecticut and elsewhere in the East could eventually involve water as well, creating a legal or regulatory quagmire for ill-prepared officials, according to legal experts.

Though frequent in the arid West, American Indian water claims are almost unheard of in states east of Missouri, experts said. Eastern states such as Connecticut also have a different doctrine of law governing water rights and it's unclear how American Indian claims would fit in it.

"What happens in many Eastern states is that water is abundant," said Judith Royster, professor of law and co-director of the Native American Law Center at the University of Tulsa in Oklahoma. "And what happens if water is abundant is that nobody is going to worry about allocating water among the various groups."

But droughts and increasing demands are hurting the East's water supply, and Royster said that could make tribes look at their water rights more closely to sustain federally recognized reservations.  Last week, spokesmen for American Indian tribes in Connecticut said they are not preparing water claims. Several said they had not even discussed the topic until asked about it by The Advocate.

"First time it's ever come up in all the years we've been doing it," said Chief Richard Velky of the Schaghticoke Tribal Nation, which has 400 acres in Kent, part of which borders the Housatonic River. "We don't see it as a potential problem at all, and I hope it wouldn't be."

Last month, the Bureau of Indian Affairs denied the Schaghticoke (Eastern CT) tribe's federal recognition in a preliminary decision. Scholars say federal recognition, and federally recognized reservations, are central to obtaining tribal water rights.  Charles Bunnell, deputy chief of staff for the Mohegan tribe, said the tribe has no intention of making water rights claims. "Not who they are as a people," he said.

The Mohegans are a federally recognized tribe, with a reservation on the western bank of the Thames River in Montville. Bunnell said the tribe is allowed to claim up to 700 acres to be part of the reservation but must acquire it from willing sellers. The Golden Hill Paugussetts plan to lay claim to 720,000 acres of the state from Waterbury to Greenwich, said Bill McBride, chief marketing officer for the tribe. McBride would not rule out a possible water claim but said it is not being considered.  The tribe received preliminary rejection of their federal recognition bid last week, but it has vowed to press ahead with land claims.

"That's possible," McBride said about a water claim. "Right now, we are really strategizing as to how we are going to proceed with the land claims."

Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal said water claims have not been raised by American Indian tribes and the state would defeat them if they were. It would take federal statute, treaty, agreement or executive order to override sovereign state's rights to water, and Blumenthal called those things very unlikely.

"I don't think people should have any fear that the Connecticut River, the Quinnipiac River or our other major waterways are going to be seized by an Indian tribe," Blumenthal said. "Or that they will begin paying their water bill to the Golden Hill Paugussetts."

The lack of claims or litigation has not stopped academic debate on the subject.  The discussion revolves around the different kinds of water regulation in the East and West.  Connecticut and other Eastern states have regulated riparianism, which requires water users to obtain permits for their water consumption. Western states have an appropriative system, which gives the first users to claim the water priority.

In the event of an American Indian water claim in the East, the question would be what system should apply, or if either should. Needs for the water could include agriculture, fishing, mining and businesses, depending on federal decisions.  Villanova University law professor Joseph Dellapenna argues state water systems such as regulated riparianism apply to American Indian tribes as well. In regulated riparianism, they would get permits along with other users and share in the risk of a drought.

Royster counters that a third system of "reserved rights" would apply because federally recognized reservations are separate from state laws. The federal government would have to determine the tribe's original "time immemorial" water needs, such as for farming, and its current needs.  Royster said water and land go together for federal tribes. "I think the water rights go with the land," she said. "And if tribes have rights to land that includes rights to water. They are inseparable."

In Western states, American Indian tribes began asserting rights to water in big numbers in the 1970s, Royster said, and their victories have resulted in intense hostility from non-American Indian water users. There was a particularly protracted fight over tribal water rights in Wyoming around the Big Horn River.

Scholars said state officials should study a case in Florida with the Seminole Tribe. A settlement was reached with the state and the tribe that allowed the tribe the right to 15 percent of the available water from specified sources, rather than a set gallon amount.  Discussion of American Indian water rights may sound remote now, but Dellapenna and Royster said that will change in the East. They said addressing the various water needs and rights early is vital.

"It's not going to be easy, nobody is going to argue with that," Royster said. "It's going to be a headache, but it's not insurmountable." 

Hartford Courant editorial Monday, June 3, 2002...
Act On Water Ordinances
ENFIELD & NEIGHBORS -- Rainy days can easily wash away concerns about water shortages and summer drought.  But the wet reprieves should not stop towns from approving water conservation ordinances. It is better to prepare thoughtfully with powers that may never be used than to rush through new regulations under emergency conditions.

The rain hasn't relieved the water shortage entirely. In Manchester, for instance, municipal wells are 41/2 feet below normal levels. The April rainfall was 1 inch less than normal.

The Manchester Board of Directors is debating a water ordinance and is expected to act after some questions are answered. The directors are giving themselves time to make sure they've thought of all of the implications.

There's no water emergency in Manchester. But that could change. And the Manchester proposal anticipates other reasons for water system shutdowns, such as a terrorist act.

Enfield discussed passing a water ordinance but decided it wasn't necessary. Representatives of the Hazardville Water Company thought their aquifer supplies were sufficient and that no action was necessary. The Connecticut Water Company also assured the council that its aquifers were adequate. But it serves other towns as well and might want to draw down its water supplies to keep water flowing elsewhere. Some council members worried that a water ordinance could give the company that option.

East Windsor is scheduled to discuss a water conservation ordinance at its June 4 meeting. Officials are wisely researching other municipal regulations to tailor rules that fit East Windsor's needs.

The state often issues water conservation advisories. But those are voluntary. If towns have individual regulations they can respond quickly to local water emergencies.

With water supplies being replenished, it is easy to think there will be no drought. But it's better to be prepared.

NEW BRITAIN -- Much of southwestern Connecticut is in the red -- not financially, but in terms of water.

Three years of below-average precipitation have left Connecticut with a rain deficit and drought watches in Fairfield, New Haven and Middlesex counties.  Now, state residents can monitor the drought through a new Web site, www.drought.state.ct.us.

"This is an unfolding story," said Arthur J. Rocque Jr., commissioner of the state Department of Environmental Protection, during a Wednesday press conference to unveil the site. The DEP and the departments of Public Utility Control and Public Health are working together on the live Web site, through which visitors can monitor rainfall, groundwater and river levels, water restrictions and the level of danger from forest fires.

"It's not so much that we have an immediate crisis on our hands," said DPUC Chairman Donald W. Downes. But rain in the levels forecast for the immediate future is unlikely to fix the problem, unless the state and municipalities take action.

The state is calling on consumers to watch their water usage and, according to Rocque, as the situation gets closer to the "emergency" level (which comes after advisory, watch and warning levels) mandatory conservation measures will kick in.

"We're not yet at the stage where fines are ready to be imposed," Rocque said.  According to the DEP, between last July and early April approximately 19 inches of precipitation has fallen, compared with an average of 34 to 35 inches. Streams and reservoirs are well below their usual levels and, because of the lack of snow this winter, will not get their normal refill from melting snow.

Earlier this month, BHC Co., the Bridgeport-based water provider for more than 500,000 people in Greater Bridgeport, New Canaan and Ridgefield, asked its customers to cut their water use by 20 percent a day. Usual use for their customers is 70 million gallons a day, said spokeswoman Adrienne C. Vaughan.  Its Greater Bridgeport System, Vaughan said, should be at 98.5 percent capacity at this time of year; it is at 75 percent.

According to BHC, Bridgeport's rainfall since October is 9.5 inches below average.  The company has asked local officials for mandatory drought restrictions but, Vaughan said, she believes Stamford and Ridgefield are the only towns to do so yet.  The warming weather, usually so welcome in Connecticut, means an increase in water use -- for pools, watering lawns and cleaning cars -- and also an increase in water evaporation rates.

"Then we will have a water shortage " if we don't get more rainfall, Rocque said.

To stave off that shortage, the state is partnering with The Home Depot, Lowes and the utilities to promote conservation products and efforts.  DPUC Commissioner John W. Betkowski III noted Wednesday that "Faucet leaks can waste up to 500 gallons a month," and a leaky toilet can use up to 1,000 gallons a month.

"For very little cost, they [consumers] can save water," he said in announcing that conservation products are now available at home improvement stores as well as Connecticut Light & Power Co. and United Illuminating's SmartLiving Centers.  The state is also beginning door-to-door education campaigns, said DPH Commissioner Dr. Joxel Garcia.

Of the state's more than 3 million residents, he said, approximately 2.6 million are served by 95 community water systems; 88,000 get their water from 457 small water systems that each serve less than 1,000 people, and the remaining 700,000 get their water from wells.

Mandatory conservation efforts are under way for 13 of the 95 biggest systems, while 74 of them are asking residents to conserve water voluntarily. Of the smaller water systems, 389 are practicing either mandatory or voluntary conservation efforts.  Residents who get their water from wells need to watch the quality, Garcia said. As levels decline, there could be more sediment showing up in drinking water.

If this happens, Garcia suggests calling in local health departments to test the water before running out to buy filters.  "We don't want to be punitive," said Garcia of the conservation efforts. "This is something that may affect the economy if we don't take this seriously."

With that possible impact in mind, Rocque said he is talking to people at the Department of Economic and Community Development, to keep them abreast of what is happening.  For the past few years, Rocque said, businesses have already been instructed to stop using drinking water for industrial purposes, if possible.

"At this point in time, we don't see any real dislocations for business," Rocque said.

It rained last week, it rained over the weekend, and it rained Wednesday.

What drought?

"Short rainfalls like this, although they are highly beneficial - I hate to use this cliché - are a drop in the bucket," said Gerald R. Iwan, chief of water supplies at the state Department of Public Health.

Precipitation is so far below normal - a deficit of 15 inches over the past nine months - that wells in some locations are nearly as depleted as they were during the historic drought of the 1960s.

Moreover, as the growing season kicks in during coming weeks, and trees and other plants lay first claim to much of the precipitation, it will become more difficult for water supplies to rebound.

Without heavy rains, reservoirs and wells could be in even worse shape by summer. Because of that, state agencies involved in water supply management issued an advisory this week asking all Connecticut residents to voluntarily conserve water.

Though weather patterns in recent weeks have brought wetter weather, scientists with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration doubt that the rain will be enough to break the drought conditions prevailing in the Eastern United States. "Months of normal-to-above-normal precipitation are necessary to end it," the agency says.

Mel Goldstein, The Courant's weather columnist and chief meteorologist at WTNH-TV, Channel 8, said Thursday that he does not see above-normal precipitation in the forecast either.

"There are no prospects for that whatsoever," he said.  "The best we can hope is stay up with normal precipitation."

Water supplies today are far more closely regulated than they were in the 1960s: Supplies have been enhanced in some places and many reservoirs are interconnected to help move water from one area affected more than another. But even with those improvements, agencies involved with drought management say there could be serious problems if dry weather persists.

Arthur J. Rocque Jr., commissioner of the state Department of Environmental Protection, anticipating potential problems, said his agency already has taken one unusual conservation step.  It waived its requirement that operators of water impoundments release a spring freshet flow, a step
ordinarily taken in late winter or early spring to blow out organic matter downstream and ensure river health.

"That helps us save a little bit of water," Rocque said, and, because even a wild stream may not see a freshet flow every year, the effect on stream health should be nominal.

The agency also is considering altering its trout-stocking program. The DEP still plans to stock all the streams it ordinarily stocks before the fishing season begins April 20, but it plans to watch water levels closely, and if some streams become too low once the season begins, they might not receive additional fish during the season.

"It depends on Mother Nature cooperating and providing some heavier than normal rainfall over the next four or five weeks," said William Hyatt, director of the agency's inland fisheries division. Streams most vulnerable are those such as the Saugatuck River in Fairfield County that are
downstream of reservoirs.

Even with the latest rain, which has perked up most rivers, groundwater supplies remain unusually low. And groundwater supplies are a major water source for streams during summer months.

"The point a lot of people don't understand is that groundwater and stream water is one system," said Virginia de Lima, chief of the U.S. Geological Survey's Connecticut district office.

The survey's Connecticut district maintains a network of indicator wells, which, according to the latest readings, are exceptionally low, some of them with levels similar to those recorded during the drought of the mid-1960s.  The water level of an indicator well in Mansfield, for example, is similar to the level recorded at this time in 1965, when the state was well into a prolonged drought.

That drought, affecting much of the Northeast, is considered the drought of record for the state, of such severity that it is likely to happen only once in 200 years. It lasted from September 1961 to September 1966 and severely taxed water supplies in many areas.

The Barkhamsted Reservoir, one of the main supplies for the Hartford area, fell to an all-time low of 42 percent of capacity at the end of 1965, compared with its current level of 77 percent. The utility said in 1965 that water supplies were in "an ever-diminishing state throughout the state."
Yearly rainfall had been running 12 to 15 inches below normal.

During summer 1966, a ban on lawn watering was imposed between 9 a.m. and 9 p.m., a mild restriction compared to measures taken in New York, parts of Massachusetts and New Jersey.

What has changed since then?

Population has increased over the past 40 years, but supply improvements have been made, too. And, with better planning, water conservation measures are triggered even before serious problems develop.

Iwan said there is sketchy information available regarding the 1960s drought in Connecticut, largely because there was little overall state management of water supplies at the time.

"Coordinated responses by state agencies were few and far between," he said. The water supply office at Public Health had "no more than seven or eight employees."  Today it has upward of 50.

The number of reservoirs has changed comparatively little, but there are many more groundwater supplies being tapped.

"I would say that we augmented the supply and improved the supply with additional groundwater wells," Iwan said.  Also significant is an improved planning process for utilities, and mechanical improvements that provide flexibility between water utilities.

"We have a much higher level of technical sophistication and planning in effect now," Iwan said. "It doesn't offset the need for the rain, but it allows us to go further into a drought than arguably we were able to do in the 1960s."

A less severe drought in 1999 drew attention to problems with the Metropolitan District Commission's delivery system, which has undergone corrective measures since.  Last year the district, using a device called a "pig," scoured sediments and deposits from its main distribution line, increasing the carrying capacity of the line by 8 million gallons a day.

Water saving devices, including those for shower heads and toilets, have helped conserve water. Also, many water utilities today have interconnections with other systems that can be crucial if one system becomes taxed while a neighboring system still has a comfortable supply, Iwan said.

One problem associated with the 1960s drought in much of the East is unlikely to recur to any significant degree. In the 1960s, there were few sewage-treatment plants operating, and those that existed were primitive. When streams became low, dilution was reduced, and pollution became an even worse problem than it had been.

Today, sewage-treatment plants are ubiquitous and into their third generation of treatment efficiencies in many places. Many of these plants have the ability to move to an even higher level of treatment if flows were to drop to dangerously low levels, Rocque said.  At the moment, the agency sees no need for any change in treatment levels, Rocque said.

Legislation enacted two decades ago will help in the event of a severe drought, Rocque said. Any diversion from a river must have a permit from the state, ensuring that a business or utility can't just siphon water from a stream without regard to downstream impacts.

"Habitat impacts you would expect to see in a prolonged drought like we saw in the `60s are less likely to occur because that law is in place," he said.

Without A Doubt, It's A Drought
March 8, 2002, by STEVE GRANT, Courant Staff Writer

On a typical March day, the Barkhamsted Reservoir brims with water from melting snow, thousands of gallons raging through the spillway at its south end.  The spillway was dry Thursday morning.

The late-winter roar that usually issues from the swollen brooks that help fill the reservoir - and provide the Hartford area with drinking water - was little more than a melodic tinkle.

With almost no snow and almost no rain this winter, the worst drought in two decades is imposing increasing strains on Connecticut's water supplies, though they are not at crisis levels. At least not yet. If the drought continues in coming months, problems could be far more serious by
summer.

Four of the state's largest water utilities already have imposed mandatory conservation measures such as bans on washing cars or watering lawns. Fourteen have asked customers to voluntarily conserve water.  The New Britain Water Department, which imposed mandatory restrictions, exercised an old agreement with the Metropolitan District Commission and last month drew about 8 million gallons of water from the Nepaug
Reservoir in New Hartford, Canton and Burlington. It was the first time the city has tapped the MDC system, which manages Greater Hartford's water, since the prolonged drought of the 1960s.

The U.S. Geological Survey found troubling new evidence of the severity of the drought in its latest check of the network of 70 wells it maintains to monitor groundwater supplies statewide.  Water levels in 54 of the wells were the lowest ever recorded for February. Winter ordinarily is a time when aquifers are recharging while vegetation is dormant.

"The fact we haven't seen the rise during the winter is the concern," said Virginia de Lima, the survey's Connecticut district chief. "Water levels tend to fall beginning in April, and they will be falling from a lower point." The beginning of the drought can be traced back perhaps as far as the late 1990s, but it has been pronounced since January 2001. Since then, precipitation has run about 16 inches below normal. Since Jan. 1 this year,
precipitation is more than 3 inches below normal.

"When I go back to 1905 in our records, I can't find a [winter] season like this, this combination of warm, dry and snowless," said Mel Goldstein, The Courant's weather columnist and chief meteorologist for WTNH-TV, Channel 8. "It's not the climate of New England. It's not the climate of South Carolina. It's the climate of Arizona and the southwest part of the United States."

Snowfall is headed for a record low. The official total for Bradley International Airport in Windsor Locks is about 11 inches.  The winter of 1988-89 had only 14 inches of snow, but it was different because the winter was cold. The winter of 1936-37 also recorded only 14 inches of snow, but there were nearly 7 inches of rain in December.  This season, rain also has been scarce. Last weekend, 1.25 inches fell in Windsor Locks, the first time since September more than an inch fell in a 24-hour period.

At the Barkhamsted Reservoir, the brooks and streams perked up a bit after the rain, but their flows are crashing again. The rain didn't make much difference in the reservoir's overall supply.  "As the situation has declined in regard to precipitation, we see more and more systems notifying their customers to conserve, which we think is proactive and appropriate at this time," said Gerald R. Iwan, chief of water supplies at the state Department of Public Health. "If they're able to conserve water and keep demands down, that is that much more they have for later."

The MDC, comparatively well off among Connecticut water utilities but keeping a wary eye on the ever-more-exposed shorelines of its reservoirs, estimates it has a 500-day supply at the moment, not low enough that the utility needs to impose restrictions.  On Thursday, Carol E. Youell, the MDC's natural resources administrator, sidestepped mussel shells and old stumps as she surveyed on foot acres of exposed Barkhamsted Reservoir bottom that a year ago was deep below the reservoir's surface.  MDC spokesman Matt Nozzolio said the reservoir is about 12 feet below capacity level, or 75 percent of its volume capacity. While the utility has not imposed any formal restrictions, it is urging customers to avoid waste. Once
levels fall below a 430-day supply, a first step would be to ask municipalities to cut back on non-essential use such as street cleaning and vehicle washing, he said.

"March and April historically are wetter months, so we're hoping there will be some replenishment," Nozzolio said.  Goldstein said more rain seems likely over the next 10 days, but not enough to make up the deficit. That could take months, if relief comes at all.

Town teeters on drought
Greenwich TIME
By Hoa Nguyen
Published December 4 2007

The town's reservoirs are hanging steady just above the 25 percent of capacity mark that would require mandatory restrictions on water use, officials said.

Greenwich remains under a drought advisory as reservoir levels hovered at 27 percent of capacity, according to the Aquarion Water Co. Normally, reservoir levels should be 80 percent full this time of year, officials said.

The periodic precipitation has been paltry, including the half-inch that came during Sunday's snowfall and the quarter of an inch that fell yesterday morning, said David Medd, Aquarion's Greenwich operations manager.

Still the combination of sporadic light rain events combined with less water usage have contributed to keeping reservoir levels steady.

"A month ago, we were in a declining pattern," Medd said. "Now, we're just flattening out."

Medd said demand appears to be slightly less than it was at this time last year, although it is unclear whether that is due to the call for conservation.

"Whether it's conservation or whether it's weather -- maybe I like to think it's a little of both," he said.

At the same time, if the reservoirs stayed where they are at and don't begin filling up by mid-February, mandatory restrictions, which primarily restrict outdoor water usage, will be instituted, Medd said. That is because as the weather begins to warm up and spring prepares to kick in, water usage is expected to increase.

"If we don't start seeing increases -- and significant increases --Êin a month or so, it's going to be that much of a concern," Medd said. Under the drought advisory residents are asked to voluntary reduce their water usage by 10 percent.

Aquarion officials also have contacted some of its top business customers to ask that they do what they can to conserve water, such as fixing leaky pipes.

First Selectman Peter Tesei received an update yesterday on the drought situation from Conservation Director Denise Savageau, who said she wants to step up the town's public relations campaign and persuade more people to save water.

"Folks are talking about it, they are aware we're in a drought advisory," she said. "We want to reinforce that."

Savageau intends to update the town's Web site, www.greenwichct.org, to include tips on ways to save water around the house. Private well users also should try to conserve water because groundwater supplies appear affected by drought conditions.

"There are some streams that are flowing below normal," she said. "We're watching it very careful."

Water officials waiting on weather
Greenwich TIME
By Hoa Nguyen, Staff Writer
Published November 18 2007

If no rain were to fall in Greenwich during the next several months, the town would have only a 90-day supply of public drinking water left in its reservoirs, according to water company figures.

Despite the seemingly dire conditions, water company officials said chances are good that a soaking rain storm will pass through the area in the near future and recharge the reservoirs. They also have measures at their disposal that would allow them to stretch out and manage the public drinking water supply, including bringing water from other areas through a regional pipe system, said Aquarion Water Co.'s operation manager David Medd.

"At this point, I'm cautiously optimistic," he said. "Odds are we're going to have some precipitation."

Droughts usually occur during the summer when demand is high and there isn't much rain. This year, the dry spell came as summer turned into fall and the unseasonably warm temperatures persisted. Those conditions worked to keep water demand high, Medd said. Also, because the late summer and early fall featured unusually dry conditions, rain that did fall was quickly absorbed by the ground instead of recharging the reservoirs, he said.

But those conditions have begun to change and as the temperatures have turned colder, water demand, particularly from outdoor use, has begun to drop, Medd said. Now officials are waiting for a long soaking rain to come around to recharge the reservoirs.

"If things stay dry, then all bets are off," Medd said.

During this time of year when the reservoirs should normally be at 80 percent of capacity, Greenwich's supplies are only slightly more than a quarter full at 27 percent. In some ways, having a drought when the weather turns cold is easier to manage than during the summer, Medd said.

"To a degree yes, because it's less stressful on the system," he said, adding that demand for water in the summer is nearly double the amount as in winter. "In the summer, the severity (of a drought) can be much greater."

At the same time, encouraging water conservation also presents a greater challenge, particularly because most residents are used to summer droughts when saving water typically means turning off the sprinklers and refraining from filling swimming pools, officials said. With little outdoor water use taking place this time of year, officials are faced with the trickier challenge of educating residents on ways to conserve water indoors, such as asking residents and companies to fix leaky pipes and promoting low-flow faucets and shower heads, said Greenwich Conservation Director Denise Savageau.

"If the weather doesn't turn around for us, we need to think about conservation," she said.

Medd said that at this point, the reservoirs need a good soaking, which he would characterize as more than an inch of precipitation. Greenwich's reservoirs hold 3.5 billion gallons of water, which comes from water collected over a 35-mile watershed.

With Greenwich in a drought advisory, which calls for a 10-percent voluntary reduction on water usage, other municipalities, such as Stamford, also are close to instituting similar calls, officials said. At the same time, other parts of the state have an adequate reservoir supply. That is because the weather has been unpredictable, in some cases, giving Greenwich scant rain while showering other parts of the state with plenty of precipitation, Savageau said.

"We've been having very localized storms," she said. "It's really a hit and miss with the weather."

In another part of CT...
Norwich Residents Asked to Conserve Water 
DAY
By Izaskun E. Larrañeta    
Published on 11/16/2007 
 
Norwich Public Utilities is urging its customers to conserve water as the reservoirs that serve the city are less than 60 percent full.

Today’s announcement means the utility company has issued a Stage 1 Water Supply Emergency, asking customers to voluntarily reduce their water usage by 10 to 20 percent. Not since the mid-1980s has NPU issued this type warning.

Last month, NPU issued a water supply advisory but with lack of rain it was forced to upgrade the level of emergency.

John Bilda, general manager at NPU. said typically reservoirs are at 80 percent capacity this time of year. Rainfall totals across New England have been 35 percent below normal, he added.

The city did receive about sixth-tenths of an inch of rain Thursday but that was still not enough, said Christopher LaRose, the utilities’ operations integrity manager.

LaRose said if the weather does not improve and the city does not get more rain, a Stage 2 Water Supply Emergency, which is not voluntary, could be issued in February.

Deluge eases water worries 
Greenwich  TIME
By Hoa Nguyen, Staff Writer
Published October 13 2007

Though up to 4.5 inches of rain that fell in parts of town this week helped raise the drinking water supply, the town's reservoirs are still at half their normal levels, officials said yesterday.

The reservoirs were last measured at 33 percent of capacity on Wednesday, but even Thursday's deluge wasn'tenough to fill them to the 72 to 78 percent normally seen this time of year, said David Medd, operations manager for the Aquarion Water Co.

"We need another three or four or five days of what we've been getting," Medd said.

Earlier this month, water and town officials issued a call for voluntary water conservation because of low reservoir levels. The National Weather Service predicts another batch of rainstorms might arrive as early as Tuesday night.

"We're definitely not out of the woods yet," Medd said. "But I feel a lot better now than two weeks ago."

The heaviest downpours came Thursday night when rain gauges measured 2.5 inches of precipitation in backcountry Greenwich and 3.3 in the downtown area, officials said.  Though nearby municipalities experienced flooding problems, Greenwich had minimal damage, officials said.

"There was some pretty heavy flooding in the Old Greenwich area, but no major damage once the water subsided," Public Works Commissioner Lloyd Hubbs said.

The rainstorms were a mere shadow of the nor'easter that flooded most parts of town in April, forcing the evacuation of 100 residents living in low-lying areas and qualifying Greenwich for federal disaster relief.  Still, this week's precipitation helped officials from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, who were touring Pemberwick yesterday, see the Byram River's raging waters for themselves. Officials were in town to inspect the frequently flooded areas of Pemberwick in preparation for a $100,000 federal study of the river.

"The water was piling over those dams pretty rapidly," said Jodi McDonald, chief of the rivers and lakes section of the corps' planning division in New York, who was among the contingent visiting Pemberwick yesterday.

The corps is conducting a so-called "reconnaissance" study to identify the flooding problems along the river, which winds through New York and Connecticut, and determine whether an engineering solution will help to fix it. Yesterday's tour, also attended by U.S. Rep. Christopher Shays, R-Bridgeport, was the corps' first visit to the Connecticut side of the river.

"It was really a straightforward first initial site visit to see where the problem areas are," McDonald said. "We may come back to show our engineering team some of the issues and what the watershed looks like and we'll go from there."

The corps expects to publish its study sometime early next year.

Drought Advisory: Trout, Reservoirs, Dairy Farms Stressed By Lack Of Rain
By RINKER BUCK | Courant Staff Writer
October 6, 2007

Trout entrepreneur Harold McMillan was not at all surprised to learn on Friday that Gov. M. Jodi Rell had issued a drought advisory for the state. All fall, he's been watching the water and the trout disappear.

McMillan, a devout fly-fisher who quit his Wall Street job to found Housatonic River Outfitters in Cornwall Bridge in 1996, normally spends the Columbus Day weekend presiding over a busy fly shop and dispatching river guides in driftboats down the Housatonic with anglers. But like anyone who lives close to the water and the land, he's acutely aware of the weather. This year, after a wet spring and early summer, it simply stopped raining in Connecticut, with barely 2 inches of precipitation being recorded at Bradley International Airport since Aug. 1;normally, in August and September, the state receives 8 inches of rain.

The results of the shortfall have been evident to McMillan and his fellow river guides along the Housatonic and Farmington watersheds all fall, especially along the major streams and tributaries where trout breed. A wildlife boom in Connecticut - predator species like hawks and fisher cats have dramatically increased in number - has combined with the drought conditions to threaten the trout trapped in stream pools. Normally, by this time of year, enough rain has fallen so that those stream trout can escape to the larger river below.

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Gov. M. Jodi Rell is calling on all homes and businesses to voluntarily reduce water consumption by 10 percent. Here are some water-saving tips from the state:

In the Bathroom
• Repair all leaks. A leaky toilet can waste 200 gallons per day.

In the Kitchen
• Use a dishpan for washing and rinsing dishes or fruits and vegetables.
• Do not use water to defrost frozen foods.
• Keep drinking water in the refrigerator instead of letting the faucet run until the water is cool.

In the Garden
• Wait until the coolest part of the day to water lawn, garden.
• Wash the car with water from a bucket rather than a hose.
• If you use a hose, control the flow with an automatic shut-off nozzle.
• Use mulch around shrubs and garden plants to reduce evaporation.

Private Well Users
• If your pump is going on more frequently, or if air bubbles come from your faucet, you may have a water problem.

Source: State Department of Public Health
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"But the streams are all exceptionally pressed for water this year and the trout are having a hard time," McMillan says. "As the water level in the pools gets lower and lower, the fish just can't get away from the predators. With the usual predation cycle in nature, it's either `fight or flight.' Well, trout can't fight, and now they've lost their option of flight because the water levels are too low. Between the ospreys, herons, raccoons and fishers, all of them feasting on our trout streams, we're getting quite a population loss this year."

Rell issued the drought advisory Friday after several large towns, including Bristol and Manchester, recorded reservoir levels below 70 percent and water monitors on the Housatonic and Naugatuck rivers showed that they are flowing at seriously low levels. The Hartford area is in relatively better shape, with the Metropolitan District Commission reporting central Connecticut reservoirs running at 85 percent of capacity, only about 5 percent below normal. The University of Connecticut has also called for mandatory water conservation at its Storrs campus.

An advisory is the least severe of four levels of alerts; the others are drought watch, drought warning and drought emergency, and this one was issued in part because the National Weather Service predicts that Connecticut will receive no significant rainfall next week.

Among other measures, Rell is calling on all Connecticut homes and businesses to voluntarily reduce water consumption by 10 percent.

Normally, according to data compiled by the National Weather Service, the climate station at Bradley airport in Windsor Locks records about 35 inches of rain for the year by early October. (Hartford generally receives about 44 inches of rain for the year, with precipitation occurring on about 125 days.) But the year-to-date rainfall recorded as of yesterday was only 29.6 inches. Most of this deficit has occurred in August and September.

Kim Buttrick, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Taunton, Mass., says there is no rain in sight for Connecticut through next Friday.

W. David LeVasseur, an undersecretary at the state Office of Policy and Management, is nicknamed Connecticut's "drought czar" because he coordinates the drought-watching activities of several state agencies and large municipalities. Water experts with several state agencies, from the Department of Environmental Protection to Homeland Security, have been meeting over the past two weeks about Connecticut's drought conditions, LeVasseur says, and they were somewhat surprised to have to move to the first stage of an emergency by issuing the drought advisory this week.

"It's been a very interesting scenario this year because we had an awful lot of rain in the spring and early summer and so our groundwater reserves appeared to be in good shape," LeVasseur says. "But a second month in a row of almost no rain triggered this drought advisory.

A complex formula of "triggers," LeVasseur says, is used to make the decision to issue a drought advisory or drought watch. For example, precipitation that is 35 percent below level for two consecutive months, or measured groundwater levels being below average for three months, can help trigger a drought advisory. The state also monitors flow on major rivers and streams, reservoir levels and the Crop Moisture Index recorded by the state Department of Agriculture.

"It's not just an index or two that triggers a drought alert," LeVasseur says. "It's a combination of factors, because we want the public to know this is based on real data from a wide variety of water measurement points."

Unlike the Housatonic River fishing guides, or the dairy farmers complaining that their grazing meadows are dry, orchard-keeper John Lyman III says that the dry conditions this fall may actually help his business. Lyman, one of the family proprietors of the large Lyman Orchards in Middlefield, annually harvests 45,000 bushels of apples in September and October. For a variety of reasons, including the changing economics of the orchard business in New England, drought hasn't threatened his crop this year. While the amount of rain that an orchard receives every year may help determine the size of apples, Lyman says, it is aggregate sunlight over a season that determines the quality of the harvest.

"Most people aren't aware of this but, typically, in a dry year, fruits and vegetables taste better," says Lyman. "If the weather is dry and clear, all that sun beating down on the fruit favors the development of natural sugars, so the apples are sweeter. But for that to happen you have to have plenty of rain early in the growing season so the fruit is fully formed before the dry weather arrives, which is exactly what happened this year. We were well positioned with rain by early August."

Lyman says that in Middlefield he was blessed by a single, mid-August thunderstorm that helped his crop - local rainfall that orchards elsewhere in the state might not have received. Still, he expects the state apple crop this year to be healthy, with slightly smaller but sweeter-tasting fruit.

The warm fall weather has helped Lyman Orchards in other ways. Like many New England apple operations, the Lyman family has aggressively diversified away from the traditional business of selling bulk apple harvests into the fickle wholesale market. The Lyman operation now includes a busy pick-your-own operation for families, a large retail store, online sales of apple products and even two golf courses.

"It's not your grandfather's orchard anymore, and the industry has transitioned to a pick-your-own model with a strong retail component," Lyman says. "So you want clear, warm weather in the fall to attract that weekend family traffic. We joke around here that the only rain we want in the fall is between 8 p.m. and 4 a.m. So, warm, dry weather spins both ways for an orchard."

Lyman says that the exceptionally dry, warm conditions in September have increased his pick-your-own and retail business by 5 to 10 percent, and he expects a "very healthy" Columbus Day weekend.

Gov. issues drought advisory, state agencies must conserve water
Norwalk HOUR
October 6, 2007

HARTFORD [AP] — The governor is issuing a drought advisory for Connecticut and is directing all state agencies to take immediate steps to conserve water.
Rainfall totals over the past few months have been 35 percent below normal.  Town officials in Bristol, Manchester, Norwich, Sprague, Greenwich and Sharon have already enacted emergency rules for water conservation.

While there may be some relief over the weekend, Governor Rell says it's still important for residents to take steps to conserve water. She advises people turn off the tap when brushing their teeth, take shorter showers, stop watering their lawns and do larger loads of laundry.  The governor is also recommending that each city and town designate an official drought coordinator to work with local water utilities and the appropriate state agencies.

NPU asks customers to conserve water 
DAY
Published on 10/3/2007 

Blaming a lack of rain and an unexpectedly warm autumn, Norwich Public Utilities today announced a water supply advisory and is asking customers to conserve water. 

A water supply advisory serves to alert the public of a potential water shortage in the event of on-going dry conditions and receding reservoir levels, according to NPU.
 
Norwich water customers are served by the Deep River and Stony Brook reservoirs. During an average fall, local reservoirs are at approximately 80% of their full capacity.  Currently, local reservoirs are at 70% capacity, the utility said in a press release.

Utilities that provide water are required to have plans in place to deal with water supply issues long before a severe drought would trigger emergency measures. At the advisory level, customers are asked to conserve water by limiting their usage and restricting activities such as washing cars or watering lawns.  

Anxiously Waiting For Water, Lack Of Rain A Problem For Farmers, University
By GRACE E. MERRITT | Courant Staff Writer
September 7, 2007

Picking McIntosh apples on his farm in Woodstock on Wednesday, Doug Young noticed something was wrong: The apples seemed ready to fall off the tree yet they were still puny.

With parched conditions and no rain expected until Sunday at the earliest, he and other farmers in eastern Connecticut have plenty to worry about. In Young's case, his apples are small, his cucumbers are ruined, and his pumpkins may be in jeopardy.

"We actually had only 53/100ths of an inch of rain for the whole month of August," Young said. "We are very, very concerned."

Beyond the yellowed grass and the dried-up bittersweet, some of his apple trees are doing beautifully. These are the newer orchards where he put in irrigation as he planted. The older trees, such as the Macs, rely on old-fashioned rainwater.

Across northern Connecticut, particularly in the east, a dry spell that set in around Aug. 11 has threatened crops and prompted water conservation measures in some towns and at the University of Connecticut.

The northeast part of the state has been particularly hard hit with low stream flow conditions that have left groundwater levels below normal, said Jon Morrison, hydrologist for the U.S. Geological Survey. Stream flows began to decline in the middle of August. The region got only a little more than an inch of rain overall, almost 3 inches below normal though not record setting, he said.

As a result, some farmers are pumping water from nearby rivers and ponds to irrigate their crops while others are using water cannons, essentially backyard sprinklers on steroids, to water larger crops, said Rick Macsuga, agriculture marketing representative for the state Department of Agriculture.

In some cases, farmers are forced to be selective about which crops to save, watering only the more popular, lucrative crops, Macsuga said.

Some communities have begun conserving water. On Tuesday, UConn called for mandatory water conservation on campus. The university raised air-conditioning temperatures by 4 degrees in its buildings, and dining halls began serving breakfast and lunch on paper plates, which could save an estimated 60,000 gallons of water a day. The university also has prohibited car washing and street washing, and has limited lawn watering and water main flushing.

The town of Manchester last month asked water users to voluntarily conserve water by taking shorter showers, and running dishwashers and washing machines only with full loads. The alert came after the town's reservoirs dropped to 80 percent of capacity, said Edward Soper, Manchester water administrator.

"The water's kind of low. We haven't had a lot of rain. We want people to be aware that the situation exists," Soper said.

The U.S. Weather Service predicts a chance of showers Sunday night through Wednesday as a cold front moves through and possibly stalls over the area. In addition, a tropical system may develop to the south, which could bring a soaking rain, said Glenn Field, warning coordination meteorologist for the National Weather Service forecast office in Taunton, Mass. He said the region would need about 6 inches of rain just to reach normal levels for September.

Tom Callahan, an associate vice president at UConn, said it would take a soaking rain for UConn to lift its conservation alert, because the formula is tied to the flow of the Fenton River. The university draws its water supply from well fields in the Fenton and Willimantic rivers.

Young is not too optimistic. Other rains that soaked western Connecticut seemed to evaporate before they got to eastern Connecticut this summer.

Still, he is grateful to at least have something to harvest this fall. Last year, his entire crop was wiped out July 3 by a hail storm that pelted his tomatoes, apples and melons with quarter-sized hailstones.

"You always have to look on the bright side," Young said.

To paraphrase Gilbert & Sullivan, the very model of a modern global corporation...for more, e-mail the Connecticut Fund for the Environment