Peterborough has upgraded its water usage ban from voluntary to mandatory.
Effective today, Aug. 2, Peterborough municipal water users are prohibited from outdoor use, such as lawn irrigation, washing vehicles or filling pools.
“We’re doing this mainly as a precaution and to avoid any long-term problems,” Select Board Chair Ed Juengst said.
According to a release issued on the town’s website, violation of the ban can lead to a $500 fine every day someone is non-compliant, suspension of access to the public water system, and other civil penalties.
Town Administrator Rodney Bartlett made the decision with consultation from the select board, whose members act as water commissioners.
Much of Southern New Hampshire is experiencing a drought, for which Peterborough was less prepared than its neighbors. The Summer Street Well, one of the town’s three, is undergoing improvements and its pump house could be out of service until the fall.
This puts extra stress on the other two wells, Tarbell and North, risking municipal water security.
“If we had any other issue, primarily mechanical, that causes one of those wells to go down, we’d have a significant water supply problem,” Bartlett said. As a confluence of factors including the drought and well rehabilitation, the ground water table falling makes conservation necessary.
The ban will primarily target residential water use, with exemptions for certain industries.
When it instituted the voluntary water ban just over a week earlier, the board connected with the ConVal School District, recreation department and fire department to limit their use.
“We’re not trying to make people stop using water they need to run a business or grow crops,” Juengst said. “A lot of large users have been contacted and we’re not going to ask them to stop using water but we’ve asked them to cut back.”
One of those large users is Rosaly’s Farmstand, whose farm manager Matt Gifford said that completely arresting water use would have put it out of business.
“It’s exempting farms, which I’m really glad they considered,” he said. “We’re happy to take every conservation measure we can.”
The ban will be enforced by public works officials, with verbal warnings and fines ultimately be issued by the police department, though Juengst says he hopes it will not come to that.
“The best enforcement of any law or regulation is voluntary,” he said, and he hopes residents will hold each other accountable.
Again, it all hinges on the weather. “Normal summer, normal rainfall, we wouldn’t have an issue,” Bartlett said. “Hopefully, with a little help from mother nature we’ll get some good rain soon.”
Brandon Latham can be reached at 924-7172 ext. 228 or blatham@ledgertranscript.com. He is also on Twitter @blathamMLT.