Despite all that rain, Natick’s drought status worsens; nonessential outdoor water use banned

The state’s Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs (EEA) has declared a Level 3 Critical Drought for the Northeast region, which includes Natick. That means no nonessential outdoor water use, such as automatic lawn sprinklers and oscillating sprinklers, washing driveways and sidewalks, washing cars at home, and filling or topping off swimming pools. You can hand water vegetable gardens.

Natick’s wells are licensed by the state, so the town needs to go along with what the EEA says on drought status even though it might seem from recent rainstorms that Natick is not parched. Natick is part of a large region, as shown in orange on the map below, that contains most of Essex, Middlesex, and Suffolk counties.

On May 8, the Northeast region’s drought level status rose from 1 to 2, and Natick issued notice that it was  “required to implement a ban on all nonessential outdoor water uses, except that watering of ornamentals and flower gardens with drip irrigation, hand-held hoses or watering cans may be permitted.” At that point, the next update from the state was anticipated for June, but you know things are bad when the EEA jammed in another notice this month, on May 22.

Sign up for Natick Report’s free weekday email newsletter