PORTSMOUTH — The Portsmouth and Pease drinking water systems “are currently experiencing very high demands” due to irrigation and cooling system use because of the recent hot and dry conditions.
“As always, we ask that our customers be vigilant and efficient with their water usage and turn off their irrigation systems during rainy conditions,” the city’s Department of Public Works said in its Drinking Water Status report for the year’s second quarter, which was released Thursday.
“Current drought conditions per the U.S. Drought Monitor, show the Seacoast area as abnormally dry,” DPW staff said in the report. “Our water systems are currently meeting water demands, however, if conditions remain hot and dry we may request customers to reduce the use of irrigation.”
The report states that “hot and dry conditions are continuing in and around the Seacoast area.” Despite that, DPW staff point to “the variability of precipitation we have experienced in the last twelve months.”
That includes wet conditions during the summer of 2023, drier conditions in the late fall, “followed by a rainy December and January.”
Water supply meeting demand
“Fortunately, the cumulative precipitation … is normal for this time of year,” DPW staff said in the report.
Deputy public works director Brian Goetz, who oversees the city’s water operations, said “today the water system is good as far as supply goes.”
But he stressed it’s still “early in the summer, and if these hot, dry conditions continue, that could change.”
“What we do is track things every day, if not every minute of every day, to make sure we can meet the demands of the system, which we are doing,” Goetz said Thursday. “But we’re letting people know that it is hot and dry now and that’s supposed to continue.”
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Despite the recent run of 90-degree weather, “groundwater levels in most of our water sources are as high as they have been in the last 20 years,” according to the report.
“This can be attributed to the way we received precipitation, however, it can also be attributed to our water operations staff’s optimization of the use of surface water versus groundwater,” DPW staff said in the report. “Cutting back our groundwater withdrawals has allowed well levels to be maintained in a sustainable manner and more water availability for the system to meet peak demand.”
Each city well has a continuous water level meter, “and the water pumped is also metered.” “This allows system operators the capability of assessing groundwater level trends and we are able to determine overall source of supply capability,” DPW staff reported.
Goetz stated that levels in the city-owned Bellamy Reservoir – the single biggest water supply in the system - remain solid, despite the recent weather conditions.
“Water was going over the dam up until about the Fourth of July, which is kind of normal,” he said. “It is dropping now due to the hot, dry conditions, but nowhere near 2016 or 2020 when we had the droughts.”
“Sitting in my office right here, I can look at the status of the water system and we can see things in real time,” he added.
Goetz reported that during the last few months “things have been below average” in terms of precipitation.
But he noted that “over the winter we got some pretty big rainfalls and the ground wasn’t frozen so that water went into the ground.”
Releasing the quarterly water report gets people thinking about the city’s water supply and encourages people to cut back before the city asks them to, Goetz said.
Asked if it’s good news that the city is meeting the demand with the use that comes from homeowners, golf courses, hotels and Water Country, Goetz said, “It is today.”
“We would hope to continue that every day, but mechanical issues could happen, water main breaks could happen,” he said. “It’s something we track continually. “We will let people know and we ask them to start cutting back if things change.”
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