Authority calls for voluntary conservation in response to state drought conditions

Municipal Authority of Westmoreland County water customers are being asked to conserve water as drought conditions take hold throughout Pennsylvania.

Conservation efforts are voluntary, and municipal authority officials said there is no immediate expectation mandatory cutbacks of water use will be required.

“It’s not panic time. It’s nothing like that,” said authority manager Michael Kukura. “This is a state drought watch, and it’s a voluntary measure. We’re putting this out based on the lesson learned from last year, and we wanted to give people a heads-up.”

The authority serves nearly 123,000 water customers in Westmoreland, Allegheny, Armstrong, Fayette and Indiana counties. The state’s drought watch includes most counties in Western Pennsylvania. Armstrong County is not included in the drought watch.

The National Weather Service last week issued a drought watch for the region. Parts of Westmoreland and Fayette counties were labeled as in an “extreme drought watch.”

Historic dry conditions throughout 2023 led to water levels at Beaver Run Reservoir in Bell and Washington townships, one of the two primary water sources for the authority, to dramatically decrease and triggered mandatory water conservation. Customers served by the reservoir were ordered last December to reduce water usage by 10%.

Conservation efforts were lifted in March after weeks of rain refilled the 11 billion gallon reservoir.

Kukura said current dry conditions have impacted water flow along the Youghiogheny River, which provides water used to service the southern half of the authority’s system. Rain last week improved water flow, although there are no current measurements that clarify how the drought has impacted the river, he said.

Conditions at Beaver Run, which services the northern half of the authority’s customer base, are sufficient as the reservoir remains four feet above drought level. Kukura estimated it would take more than a month without rain for water levels at the reservoir to drop below where mandatory conservation efforts would be required.

Weather forecasts call for rain Thursday.