State Lifts Western Pennsylvania Drought Watch

Scott Detrow

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Scott Detrow is a congressional correspondent for NPR. He also co-hosts the NPR Politics Podcast.

Detrow joined NPR in 2015 to cover the presidential election. He focused on the Republican side of the 2016 race, spending time on the campaign trail with Donald Trump, and also reported on the election's technology and data angles.

Detrow worked as a statehouse reporter for member stations WITF in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and KQED in San Francisco, California. He has also covered energy policy for NPR's StateImpact project, where his reports on Pennsylvania's hydraulic fracturing boom won a DuPont-Columbia and national Edward R. Murrow Award in 2013.

August 31, 2012 | 3:26 PM

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A dog protects itself against the rain. Increased rainfall led the DEP to lift a drought watch for western Pennsylvania.

Steady August rain has improved Pennsylvania’s drought conditions, and the Department of Environmental Protection is now lifting a drought watch it imposed on 15 western counties in mid-July.
While water withdrawal moratoriums are still being enforced within the Susquehanna River Basin Commission, DEP Secretary Michael Krancer issued a statement saying water levels have risen in the west. “Rainfall over the last six weeks helped out the situation immensely in these counties. …We’ve seen improved stream-flows and soil moisture, and while some groundwater levels are still below normal we feel confident that conditions will continue to improve.”
The state’s drought watch – which went into effect on July 19th – didn’t carry any restrictions with it. Companies were only asked to temporarily reduce water usage. The state’s press release details how watches fit into drought categories:

A drought watch declaration, the first and least severe level of the state’s three drought classifications, calls for a voluntary five-percent reduction in non-essential water use. A drought warning is the second level of the drought classification and asks residents to voluntarily reduce water use by 10-15 percent. A drought emergency is declared through proclamation by the governor, bans non-essential use and requires public water suppliers to implement contingency plans.