Ridgefield has so far escaped the grip of what the National Weather Service is calling a moderate drought for Connecticut.
It was so dry for the past three months of late winter into spring, according to the National Weather Service, that not even the drenching rainfall of the first several days of June could hold back a designation of abnormally dry for the state.
“We’re still in a moderate drought,” said David Miskus, a drought monitor for the weather service, based in New York City.
It’s unusual for Connecticut to have such a dry spring, he said.
“It’s been three to four months with lower than normal precipitation,” Miskus said, but mitigated by the fact that the weather was generally cool in April.
Many rivers were noticed lower than normal by May, he said, and farmers, in particular, had to use irrigation to help along their season’s plantings.
Drought monitoring is essential in Ridgefield because roughly two-thirds of the homes in the town of nearly 26,000 people are on well water.
The conditions are normal, said Edward Briggs, director of health for the town.
“Nobody’s coming in with dry wells,” Briggs said. “It’s a good thing we don’t have that problem.”
Aquarion, the water company based in Bridgeport that serves many Ridgefield homes, has also dodged a bullet when it comes to the moderate drought. The system’s reservoirs are operating at normal capacity, said Peter Fazekas, spokesman for the water company.
“We currently have no voluntary or mandatory conservation requirements,” Fazekas said.
Aquarion has 10,300 customers in Ridgefield, he said.
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