Water conservation

Riverhead’s proposed water conservation law will be revised after some residents on Tuesday said the law was too strict and did not take into account certain irrigation needs not satisfied by the every-other-day watering schedule mandated by the law.

Longtime Riverhead Highway Department employee Eddie Reeve was honored by the Town Board at its meeting Wednesday. The board also scheduled a public hearing on a proposed water conservation law

Aiming to conserve water during times of peak demand, Riverhead is considering a local law to restrict water use for watering lawns, washing cars and filling pools based on street address numbers. The proposed law would also ban watering lawns while it's raining.

Riverhead Water District customers will be required to adhere to an odd/even day schedule for irrigation and No watering will be permitted between 5 a.m. and 9 a.m. or between 5 p.m. and 9 p.m. every day.

Hot, dry weather is challenging the Riverhead Water District's ability to maintain an adequate water supply, supervisor says

With another period of hot, dry weather forecast, Riverhead Water District is at risk for not being able to meet demand, due to a sharp spike in water consumption — as much as 80 percent — for irrigation.

The district's sewer fees, charged on an estimated sewage flow calculated according to the volume of water used, have increased by more than 50 percent since the district installed irrigation systems to water its athletic fields and lawns. But the water used for irrigation doesn't flow to the sewer plant.

The time is now for all of us to wake up and take some simple steps to conserve our precious drinking water resource.

“We’re in dire straits,” Supervisor Sean Walter said in a phone interview this afternoon. “Everything in the water district is running flat-out right now" and the district still can't fill up its storage tanks.

The Riverhead Water District is imposing an odd/even water schedule for business and residential properties, effective immediately.