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Southold Town seeks new water conservation guidelines

sprinkler

At Tuesday’s Southold Town Board work session, Councilman Robert Ghosio said it’s time for residents to start thinking about conserving water.

Long Island is in the midst of a drought, according to weather experts. The average home in Suffolk County uses about 160,000 gallons of water each year, Mr. Ghosio said.

“When you get down to the East End, that average goes up,” Mr. Ghosio said, though he didn’t have specific numbers for the North Fork.

During the meeting, Mr. Ghosio joked he hadn’t been the best example to follow for conserving water, previously running his sprinkler system too much.

“It felt like we’ve always got plenty of water,” he said. “I would water accordingly and not really pay too much attention to it.” But recently, Mr. Ghosio said he’s gotten more involved with taking care of his landscaping while keeping water conservation in mind and not using as many fertilizers.

Mr. Ghosio and Town Board member Jill Doherty suggested adding voluntary guidelines on the town’s website that would encourage water conservation. Southold Town Supervisor Scott Russell said the town could also look to nearby towns to find water conservation legislation to use as a template for Southold.

“A lot of this is just common sense solutions that isn’t going to impose a lot on homeowners,” Mr. Russell said. “The groundwater is a public resource.”

The Suffolk County Water Authority, which services 8,650 customers in Southold Town, issued a water alert last week requesting that customers keep non-essential water use to a minimum.

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Photo credit: flickr.com / Shaylor