With the amount of rain the area has gotten over the last two months, most folks probably barely noticed that Westfield and Southwick had implemented mandatory water restrictions because of drought conditions.
As of Tuesday, however, the drought is officially over in the region and the spigots can get turned back on, according to an announcement from the state’s Energy and Environmental Affairs.
“We were as eager as our residents to have the drought restrictions removed,” said Westfield Water Division’s Systems Engineer Heather Stayton moments after the state lifted the drought.
She said the city’s Water Commission has scheduled an emergency meeting for Thursday to officially lift the mandated water restrictions the commissioners implemented on May 5.
Municipal water systems that had implemented the water restrictions have been anxiously awaiting the EEA’s decision since early May when they learned this area was still in what was considered a Level I or mild drought.
Southwick DPW Director Randy Brown said the town’s mandated water restrictions were lifted on Tuesday immediately after the EER’s announcement.
“We’re glad that MassDEP has lifted the drought declaration, allowing unrestricted outdoor water use to resume,” Brown said.
For the residents of Southwick, when the mandated restrictions were implemented in early May it was earlier than any year before.
Typically, Southwick’s water restrictions were based on the flow of the Westfield River.
Before July 1, the restriction would take effect when the Westfield River flows at 502 cubic feet per second, or less, for three consecutive days.
However, that hasn’t been an issue with year with the Westfield-Barnes Regional Airport — the nearest weather recording station to Southwick — reporting 5.26 inches of rain since May 1.
The normal amount of rainfall measured at the airport in May is 2.15 inches.
Stayton said most city residents probably didn’t notice the water restriction was in place, given the amount of rain that has fallen over the last three weeks.
“I can’t imagine anyone needed to water their lawn,” she said, but added that “not a lot of residents were happy” when the restrictions were announced.
For Westfield, this was the first time in recent memory that the restrictions were implemented.
Because of that, she said many residents were just beginning to learn which area residents could water their lawn or wash their vehicles once each week and no one was fined.
