{"id":4153,"date":"2024-07-23T10:10:35","date_gmt":"2024-07-23T14:10:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mde\/?p=4153"},"modified":"2024-07-23T10:10:38","modified_gmt":"2024-07-23T14:10:38","slug":"maryland-department-of-the-environment-encourages-water-conservation-with-drought-watch-for-western-maryland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mde\/2024\/07\/23\/maryland-department-of-the-environment-encourages-water-conservation-with-drought-watch-for-western-maryland\/","title":{"rendered":"Maryland Department of the Environment Encourages Water Conservation with Drought Watch for Western Maryland"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><em>No Mandatory Water Use Restrictions in Place But Voluntary Reductions Encouraged<\/em><br> <br><br>BALTIMORE (July 23, 2024) \u2013 The Maryland Department of the Environment is urging citizens and businesses in large parts of the state to voluntarily reduce their water usage as a drought watch has been issued.<br><br>\u201cWe are closely monitoring conditions across the state during these hot summer months. We\u2019ve already issued a drought watch for the Eastern Shore, and now we are issuing a watch for western Maryland,\u201d said Maryland Department of the Environment Secretary Serena McIlwain. \u201cThere is no need for mandatory water restrictions, but we are asking residents and businesses to take steps to reduce the amount they use.\u201d<br><br>The drought watch issued for western Maryland is based on lower-than-normal stream flows and groundwater levels for this time of year. During a drought watch, MDE increases oversight of water supply conditions and encourages voluntary water conservation practices. No mandatory water use restrictions have been issued.<br><br>The affected region includes Garrett, Allegany and Washington counties. A drought watch declared earlier this month <a href=\"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mde\/2024\/07\/11\/maryland-department-of-the-environment-encourages-water-conservation-with-drought-watch-for-eastern-shore\/\">for eastern Maryland<\/a> remains in effect.<br><br>The state currently has enough water to meet the needs of residents and businesses, but water conservation measures are being encouraged to help avoid any future water shortages. Homeowners should consider water conservation measures listed in our <a href=\"https:\/\/mde.maryland.gov\/programs\/water\/waterconservation\/Pages\/water_factsheet.aspx\">fact sheet<\/a>.<br><br>Recommendations on conserving water <a href=\"https:\/\/mde.maryland.gov\/programs\/water\/waterconservation\/pages\/index.aspx\">for certain types of businesses<\/a>, such as restaurants and commercial buildings, are also available.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large is-resized\"><a href=\"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mde\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2024\/07\/droughtmap07152024.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"512\" height=\"396\" src=\"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mde\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2024\/07\/droughtmap07152024.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-4158\" style=\"width:591px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mde\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2024\/07\/droughtmap07152024.png 512w, https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mde\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2024\/07\/droughtmap07152024-300x232.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 512px) 100vw, 512px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-gallery has-nested-images columns-default is-cropped wp-block-gallery-1 is-layout-flex wp-block-gallery-is-layout-flex\"><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>No Mandatory Water Use Restrictions in Place But Voluntary Reductions Encouraged BALTIMORE (July 23, 2024) \u2013 The Maryland Department of the Environment is urging citizens and businesses in large parts of the state to voluntarily reduce their water usage as a drought watch has been issued. \u201cWe are closely monitoring conditions across the state during<a href=\"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mde\/2024\/07\/23\/maryland-department-of-the-environment-encourages-water-conservation-with-drought-watch-for-western-maryland\/\">&nbsp;&nbsp;Read the Rest&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[70,92,14,130,1,71],"tags":[32,142,132],"class_list":["post-4153","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-drinking-water-2","category-drought","category-press-release","category-secretary-mcilwain","category-uncategorized","category-water-conservation","tag-drinking-water","tag-drought","tag-secretary-serena-mcilwain"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mde\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4153","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mde\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mde\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mde\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mde\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4153"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mde\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4153\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4160,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mde\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4153\/revisions\/4160"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mde\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4153"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mde\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4153"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mde\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4153"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}