It’s not drawing as much attention as drought worries in California, Texas or Florida, but a lack of water significantly hit a pocket of the Northeast that’s never experienced the problem to this degree before. Last summer, most of Connecticut was under a drought watch for the first time, and the restrictions were finally lifted in mid-June.
“Last year was a rude awakening,” says Dan Maki, vice president of property care and design/build at Glen Gate Company based in Wilton, Connecticut. “There’s a lot of people with big lawns and a big demand for water.”
Bruce Moore Sr., president and CEO at Eastern Landscape Management based in Stamford, Connecticut, says less rainfall, combined with average snowfall and an increase in population has created the perfect conditions to start a drought.
“The demand has gone up. And I live right near within a mile of our largest reservoir,” he says. “You do see in the summertime it drops down substantially. Last winter, it was basically empty.”
Whether it’s a random occurrence or a sign of something bigger, customers are finally coming around to the idea of water conservation, or at least, more open to it than in the past because of the drought and water rates increasing.
“There’s more concern because the weather patterns seem to be changing,” says Maki, whose company services residential customers.
“The streams aren’t flowing as they use to be. I’ve noticed it myself because I’m a fisherman. I could tell there has been a problem. The rivers don’t seem to stay up as high as they usually did before.”
Moore says the drought has made his customer base, which is 100 percent commercial, start to come around to being more responsible with irrigation.
Moore estimates interest in water-efficient technologies has increased 50 percent compared to five years ago.
Read the full story from our July issue here.