The state’s Drought Management Task Force voted June 9 to end one of the wetter local “droughts” in recent memory.
The decision allowed the town on June 10 to lift state-required watering restrictions on outdoor water use effective immediately.
The decision was voted at the state task force’s June 9 monthly meeting in which it received multiple reports related to rainfall measurements, streamflow conditions, reservoir capacities and other gauge readings that all pointed toward improved conditions in the state’s Southeast region, a broad area that includes Needham at its northern border and extends to the Rhode Island border and the bridges to the Cape.
Rob Megnia, senior service hydrologist for the National Weather Service, remarked that last month was the fifth wettest May ever in the Boston area.
“Hopefully we’re all going to be presenting good news this afternoon. I certainly am,” said Brian Loving, hydrologic monitoring branch chief for the U.S. Geological Survey during the Task Force meeting.
Loving reported that streamflow conditions at the start of May “were in the normal range. But after those rains, by the middle of the month we were much above normal at most of the sites.”
The restrictions had been in place since April 9. Needham DPW head Carys Lustig, in an interview prior to the restrictions being lifted, said her department did receive some calls from residents. “I don’t think they’re that upset,” she reported. “I think they’re more confused than upset.”
The most common calls, she said, were from people who referred to the signs the DPW had posted around town informing residents of the water use restrictions. “They’d say, ‘It says, there’s a drought. What do you mean there’s a drought? It’s rained a lot.’
“Some would say, ‘What are you guys doing, you know, to fight this?’”
Because the restrictions were mandated by the state, the town really had no means to avoid the restrictions, which the town would not have implemented of its own volition.
“Our wells are good, and we’ve got plenty of water,” Lustig said. “We’re not really in a situation of local concern at this point.”
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