Amid drought, a village runs dry

Whitehall Mayor Francis Putorti stands inside the village’s water treatment plant in late January. The village water system shut down for two days in December after a combination of drought and a leaking pipe drew Whitehall’s reservoir down to dangerously low levels. Joan K. Lentini photo

 

By MAURY THOMPSON
Contributing writer

WHITEHALL, N.Y.

Whitehall Mayor Francis Putorti was puzzled when the village public works superintendent alerted him that the volume of water being drawn from Pine Lake, the village’s sole water source, had dropped from the typical 500 to 600 gallons per minute to 400 gallons.
“The lake has been good to Whitehall for a century,” Putorti said.

But when the volume dropped to 233 gallons, he knew the village had to take action.
“We had a problem,” Putorti recalled in an interview in mid-January.

So at an emergency meeting convened at 9:20 p.m. on a December night, the village board voted to shut off water supply connections to the village’s water tanks effective at 11:30 p.m., leaving all of the village’s 1,300 customers without water for the next two days.

Drought already had lowered the water level at Pine Lake, and officials later determined that a leak from a broken water line had helped push the village’s water supply to dangerously low levels. So it became necessary to shut off water service until the lake could replenish the gravity-fed system, the mayor explained.

“It was more from the drought than anything,” Putorti said.
The unexpected crisis in Whitehall was highly unusual for a local water system in the Northeast. But some experts say the village’s experience is a cautionary tale — one that shows the need to add resiliency to local water systems as climate change increases the risk of sustained drought in the region.

Although Whitehall’s water service was restored two days after the Dec. 8 shutoff, usage continued to be restricted for several more days as the flow to individual water taps gradually increased to normal.

A boil-water order was in effect for a week, and a state-of-emergency declaration was still in place in mid-January, with residents encouraged to voluntarily continue conserving water through measures such as limiting the duration of showers, only partially filling tubs and sinks, and running dishwashers only with a full load. The emergency order is expected to remain in effect indefinitely, Putorti said.

The village repaired the leaking pipe and installed a new pump to improve the flow of water from Pine Lake. But concerns remain if drought continues or if the pattern of more frequent droughts continue.

Eric Mattison, owner of Main Street Laundry and Wash & Fold, said a reliable water supply is important to local businesses such as his own, and to Maplewood Ice, which supplies ice to the Stewart’s Shops convenience store chain, among other customers.

Whitehall and state Department of Health officials are meeting weekly to develop a plan to address the situation. That plan most likely would include establishing a backup water source, but that would be expensive.

“All of this could be fixed if we have money,” Putorti said. “But we can’t tax the people to death.”
In the interim, he’s hoping for enough rain and snow to relieve drought conditions.
“We have got to get some rain or something,” he said in mid-January.

 

‘Lack of redundancy’
The severity of the problem in Whitehall is unusual, but concerns about water infrastructure are becoming increasingly common as weather patterns change, said Jenny Ingrao-Aman, executive director of the New York chapter of the American Water Works Association, an educational organization.

“While Whitehall’s situation was extreme, other communities in upstate New York have faced water shortages during past droughts, often requiring emergency measures like water conservation mandates, trucked-in water supplies, or temporary infrastructure adjustments,” Ingrao-Aman said. “However, complete water shut-offs are rare and usually a result of a combination of factors, including aging infrastructure, insufficient planning or a lack of redundancy in water systems.”

The threat differs from one community to the next.
“The severity of drought impact varies widely depending on the specific location and its water sources,” she said. “In some areas, reservoirs and aquifers remain sufficient, while others, particularly those reliant on smaller surface water bodies or shallow wells, might have experienced challenges.”

Other municipalities may need infrastructure improvements if droughts become more frequent.
Saratoga Springs, for example, might need to update its water system if the pattern of drought continues, said Kurt Smemo, an associate professor and director of the environmental studies program at Skidmore College.

Loughberry Lake is the city’s primary water source, and new housing development and tourism have increased demand for water, particularly in peak summer months.

In 1964, Saratoga Springs developed a pump station at Bog Meadow Brook to supplement Loughberry Lake at peak times, and in 1999 the city added infrastructure to send water from Bog Meadow Brook directly to the city’s water plant.

“We’re already taking the maximum water for Bog Meadow Bay,” Smemo said. “I don’t know long-term.”

At least one Vermont ski area has been affected by the drought. WPTZ-TV of Plattsburgh reported Jan. 3 that Brattleboro Ski Hill in Windham County had dry patches at spots on its trails because of a water shortage.

The ski hill, which relies on an all-volunteer staff, draws its water for snow making from a nearby pond, which was at unusually low levels. Over a two-week period, the snow making system had run out of water at least twice, WPTZ reported.

“There has been somewhat of a hiccup at one or two” of Vermont’s ski areas, but recent rain and snow seem to have resolved it, said Bryan Rivard, spokesman for the Vermont Ski Areas Association, in a mid-January interview. “Talking to the areas, they’re saying they are full up in terms of snowmaking at this point in time.”

Water supply for snowmaking has not been an issue at Gore Mountain Ski Center in North Creek or West Mountain Ski Center in Queensbury, said Jim Siplon, president and chief executive officer of Warren County Economic Development Corp.

But as warmer weather approaches, a continuing drought does carry water-quality implications for the region’s lakes and ponds. Low water levels at the same time as high temperatures create optimum conditions for the growth of toxic algal blooms, explained Claudia Braymer, executive director of the environmental group Protect the Adirondacks.

 

Hotter and drier
In most of the United States in 2024, temperatures ranged from 2 to 4 degrees above normal, according to the National Integrated Drought Information System, a joint effort of various federal government agencies.

The year also was characterized by precipitation extremes, with unusually wet and unusually dry periods alternating in many parts of the country. October was particularly dry overall, and almost all of the Northeast was experiencing drought in mid-December, with Massachusetts experiencing “extreme drought.”

As of Jan. 6, the Champlain and Hudson Valley were considered “abnormally dry.”
Vermont was 8 degrees hotter in 2024 than in 2023, marking the state’s second consecutive year of record heat, the online news site VTDigger reported on Jan. 7.

In eastern New York, Vermont and the Berkshires, higher than normal temperatures are expected to continue at least through March, although precipitation also is projected to be higher than normal.

Temperatures are projected to be 40 percent to 50 percent warmer than normal, with precipitation also 40 percent to 50 percent above normal.

The effect of the additional precipitation will depend on whether it falls steadily over time or in a few deluges.

“Nobody can predict the weather, but historically we have been looking at these swings where it goes from extreme rain to no rain,” said state Assemblyman Matt Simpson, R-Lake George.
Steady rain or snow is needed to adequately replenish lakes and ponds. When there is a deluge of rain, much of the water runs off instead of being absorbed into lakes, ponds and ground water.
It is important to distinguish between weather and climate, said Smemo, the Skidmore professor.
Diagram weather patterns over the last 150 years in 10-year increments, and the result will be a squiggly up-and-down line across any decade, he explained. But diagram the pattern continuously across the same 150 years, and it will show a dramatic change over time, he added.

“There’s going to be intense drought and intense wet,” he said.
Smemo said the recent “Western-style” forest fires in the southern Catskills indicate the climate is changing.

Wildfires that have erupted in recent years in the boreal forest of Canada also are a warning sign about possible future drought in the Adirondacks, said Peter Bauer of Protect the Adirondacks.
“That was a saturated forest in many ways like the Adirondacks,” said Bauer, the environmental organization’s fund-raising coordinator and former executive director.

Bauer said that if the drought conditions of the Canadian forests spread to the south, the consequences could be dire.

“It would be a serious drought like we’ve never seen before that would create a serious threat to the Adirondacks,” he said.

 

A push for investment
Water supply clearly is an issue in the Northeast, but north of the Capital District, supplies generally have been adequate, said Siplon, the Warren County economic development official.
“I was in Connecticut several weeks ago and drove past several reservoirs,” he added. “They were definitely down. It’s unusual for us. If we continue to have these lengthy periods of drought, it will become a problem.”

Ingrao-Aman of the American Water Works Association said droughts have occurred periodically over the decades but that “the anecdotal evidence suggests that our weather patterns do seem to be changing.”

The group’s New York chapter “strongly advocates” for increased state and federal funding for water infrastructure.

“While utilities typically allocate funds annually for operations and maintenance upgrades, these budgets often fall short of covering the full scope of necessary improvements,” she said. “Since these budgets are closely tied to water rates, increasing rates to address critical infrastructure needs can be a significant challenge.”

Simpson, the state assemblyman, said he has been keeping informed about the progress in crafting Whitehall’s water plan, and he has pledged to help identify potential grants and loans when the plan is completed.

”It’s going to be an additional cost,” Simpson said. “That’s where I would come in.”
Siplon, the Warren County official, said he and others have been urging the state to make water infrastructure a priority in its economic development strategy.

“It’s as important as electricity and road infrastructure,” he said.
The American Society of Civil Engineers has estimated that if water infrastructure is not addressed, gross domestic product will decrease by $2.9 trillion by 2039, according to the office of U.S. Rep. Paul Tonko, D-Amsterdam.

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, in her State of the State address in January, proposed increasing annual state funding for water infrastructure improvements by $500 million.

At the federal level, Tonko, introduced legislation in December for the federal government to spend $104 billion on improving water infrastructure over 10 years, including $49 billion in increased funding through the Drinking Water State Revolving Loan Fund, which provides grants and low-interest loans through the states for public water infrastructure improvements. Tonko plans to reintroduce the legislation this session, spokeswoman Rachel Dejean said.

The proposed legislation would increase the share the program could provide for projects in economically distressed communities from 35 percent to 40 percent of the cost of the project.
The legislation also would include $30 billion to replace lead water pipes and $5 billion to address perfluorooctanoic acid or PFOA contamination in public water supplies.

Another measure would make permanent and expand a temporary program that subsidizes water bills for low-income customers. Subsidizing water bills enables municipalities to spend more for infrastructure improvements without burdening low-income customers, Tonko said.