The Massachusetts drought status worsened Feb. 7 as two regions in the state entered a Level 3 Critical Drought, according to the Executive Office Energy and Environmental Affairs.
Massachusetts has been in a worsening drought since August, with the last six months of precipitation between eight and 13 inches below average, said Vandana Rao, director of water policy at the Executive Office of EEA and co-chair of the Drought Management Task Force.
Every region in the state is experiencing some level of deficit for groundwater and stream flow, particularly in the northeast, central and southeast.
After several weeks of below-average precipitation, EEA Secretary Rebecca Tepper raised the Central and Northeast regions to a Level 3 Critical Drought. The Southeast, Cape and Islands regions rose to a Level 2 Significant Drought. The Connecticut River Valley and Western regions remain at Level 2 Significant Drought and Level 1 Mild Drought, respectively.
Some of the most effective ways residents can limit their water consumption is by taking shorter showers, using dishwashers and only washing dishes and laundry on full loads, Rao said.
Rao added another crucial often overlooked way to preserve water: check appliances and fixtures for any leaks and upgrade to more water efficient ones.
“It may seem like a small toilet leak that’s just annoying, but it does tend to waste a lot of water if you look at it cumulatively over multiple days,” Rao said.
Over the last few decades, Massachusetts has not experienced many droughts. However, since 2016, most years had at least six months in some level of drought.
“Unfortunately, thanks to climate change, we’ll see drier winters, which mean droughts become more intense and more frequent,” said Hessann Farooqi, executive director of the Boston Climate Action Network. “Even though we’ve gotten [a] good amount of snow in the last couple weeks, we are still in a drought.”
Farooqi said he believes a coordinated state water conservation policy could help allocate water more efficiently.
“All 351 cities and towns in Massachusetts come up with their own water conservation plans,” Farooqui said.
Cities further up the water table near the river’s source lack the structural incentive to conserve water, letting cities further downstream “pay the price,” said Farooqi.
“Having coordination across cities and towns is really critical,” said Farooqi.
Despite months of drought, the crisis is not yet severe enough for drinking water to be impacted.
“Where BU students get their water from, is from this quite extensive, pretty well developed reservoir system,” said BU Earth and Environment Professor David Demeritt. “It makes us quite robust to a season or two of dry weather”
For farmers, on the other hand, the drought may have more serious implications through Massachusetts and the greater New England area.
Climate change puts growing seasons into disarray, said Farooqi, hurting crop yields. This hits small local farmers especially hard, as they are already deteriorating from large agricultural conglomerates.
“[It’s] not really a question for the city of Boston’s government to answer as much as it is for our state and federal government, and especially our federal government,” said Farooqi. “A coordinated response that can make sure that we’re protecting our farmers… and getting those crops to our tables and to our grocery stores in the most sustainable way possible will be critical in climate resilience for the coming years and decades.”
