Suffolk County made it through an unusually hot summer without stressing the water supply, according to the Suffolk County Water Authority.
Water usage peaks in summer, mainly due to residents overwatering their lawns. Past summers have brought peak demands up to 540,000 gallons per minute.
But this summer, demand never surpassed 520,000 gallons per minute and rarely broke 510,000.
“Lawn irrigation is the biggest driver of water demand," Dan Dubois of the Suffolk County Water Authority said. "We use about 70% of the water that we're going to pump all year during the summer pumping months, and we know it's from lawn watering. So getting that under control is going to be the biggest thing that we can do to ensure conservation.”
Dubois said credit for the decrease goes to residents who followed the "odd/even" watering policy. Under this policy, homes with odd-numbered street addresses water their lawns on odd-numbered calendar days, and those with even numbers water on even calendar days.
“That's really helpful for reducing water demand, which is what we started to see this summer," Dubois said. "I think we were very successful in getting our customers to adopt these policies and follow the schedule."
The SCWA offers rebates for installing water-saving devices like smart sprinklers and low-flow showerheads, as well as low-tech items like rain barrels and solar pool covers to reduce evaporation.