SUFFOLK COUNTY, NY — As the East End continues under a Stage 1 Water Emergency sparked by drought conditions and a water shortage that threatens the ability of firefighters to respond in a crisis, Brookhaven Town officials also implored homeowners for help Thursday.

Brookhaven Town Supervisor Ed Romaine held a press conference at the Suffolk County Water Authority water tower in Center Moriches to address the current drought and water shortage effecting Long Island.

On Aug. 1, the water authority declared a Stage 1 water emergency alert due to the prolonged hot and dry weather in the towns of Southampton, Southold, East Hampton, and Shelter Island.

Although the water emergency alert has not yet been extended to the Town of Brookhaven, Romaine strongly urged residents to voluntarily undertake water usage and conservation measures to prevent an emergency.

Romaine was joined by Jeff Szabo, the water authority CEO, Chris Mehrman, Brookhaven's chief fire marshal, and Joe Pokorny, the water authority's deputy CEO.

Under the Stage 1 water emergency alert in the four East End Towns, residents must stop all irrigation between midnight and 7 a.m., refrain from all non-essential water usage, reduce shower times and embrace other water-saving measures indoors.

Pokorny told Patch on Tuesday residents on the East End — so far — have not complied with pleas for help.

"They've gone largely unheeded," Pokorny said. "If I look at total system pumpage, I really don't see much of a difference. You would think when you make a plea, people would take action, and we'd see some type of reduction, but we haven't seen that."

The top 10 most egregious water users on the East End include largely wealthy individuals on estates, Romaine said. In data provided by the water authority to Patch, nine of those 10 live in East Hampton.

One home uses as much as 4 million gallons a year. A Hamptons estate uses 17 million of gallons a year, Pokorny said.

According to information provided by the water authority, between 300 and 400 East End homes use about 1 million gallons of water per year, while an average homeowner on Long Island uses about 160,00 gallons.

Outreach efforts are continuing on the East End, with a robocall from the Southampton Town fire marshal going out to residents on Thursday morning, Pokorny said.

"We are working with SCWA to reach out to all residents to make sure that those that have irrigation systems set them to go on after 7 a.m.," Southampton Town Supervisor Jay Schneiderman told Patch. "Our fire marshal is recording an automated call. Our concern is that we maintain sufficient water levels to suppress fires at multiple structures simultaneously."

Pokorny said the SCWA has also reached out to commercial businesses on the East End that are using a great deal of water.

The fear is that, given the strain on the system, with all the lawn-watering happening in the overnight hours, if there were a fire, "the worst case scenario would be that a water tank that is one-third of the way full, as opposed to full or half full, could run dry. The odds of that happening are slim but just when you think it's not going to happen, it does. You have to think of the worst-case scenario," Pokorny said.

Southampton fire officials gathered with SCWA representatives earlier in August to sound the cry for residents to change their lawn irrigation habits. The SCWA has gone door to door and made appeals on the phone directly to residents.

In Brookhaven Town, although no emergency has yet been declared, the public's help is needed, Romaine said.

"We're here to talk about a problem that is evident. All you have to do is look down at your feet," Romaine said. "The grass is dry. It's not green. We haven't had rain. We've entered a drought season in July and August that is really taxing our water authority" he said.

The water tower in Center Moriches, Romaine said, begins to replenish water on weekday mornings because between 3 a.m. and 8 a.m., "probably, a good 80 percent of that tower was drained because of the water usage that takes place." Right now, it's estimated that the average homeowner uses between 400 and 500 gallons a day, but over 30 percent is for exterior use, Romaine said.

"So when you wake up you've got your water sprinklers going, you've got people taking showers and this tower loses a tremendous portion of the water and pressure it provides between 3 a.m. and 8 a.m," Romain said.

The SCWA, he said, is "taxed to the max." He asked residents to refrain from irrigating their lawns between 3 a.m. and 9 a.m.

"These drought conditions are serious and threatening," Romaine said.

"Our message is very simple," Szabo said. "During the spring and summer months, we pump about 70 percent of the water consumed each year. An overwhelming majority of that water is used for irrigation purposes. So our plea has been, for residents of Suffolk County, they need to go and open up their irrigation clocks, and they need to change the timers to earlier in the evening or late afternoon, so there is enough supply in the early morning hours so that emergency services, firefighters and first responders can have sufficient water available in an emergency."

Mehrman stressed the need for fire safety during a time when the fire weather index in the area is high. He urged residents to exercise caution and refrain from outdoor fires in fire pits or chiminea, to help prevent wildfires in the Pine Barrens.

For those adjacent to "wildlife urban interfaces," such as the Pine Barrens, Mehrman asked that residents "be very careful because we don't want fire; fire spreads very quickly during drought conditions — and fires can start easily."

Also, residents are asked to watch for smoke in the Pine Barrens area, all with an eye toward avoiding large wildfires such as those seen in past years, that led to evacuations.

Mehrman said that while the Brookhaven Town aquifer will not run out of water, it's the pumping capacity that's put at risk when usage is so high. "We take a lot of water out of those hydrants when there's a brush fire and we rely on the pressure. That's one of the reasons we want you to adjust the usage time, so it's spread out and not maxing out."

Pokorny added that the high usage and demand decreases pumping capacity and could lead to not enough water in an emergency. "We think it's a reasonable request — shift your demand. We need everybody to cooperate," he said.

Romaine said aquifer replenishes in the fall, spring and winter, not summer, leading to great demands on wells during certain hours. "Changing your sprinkler system to later afternoon or early evening makes a huge difference," he said.

"It's not one person making a change, it's all of us," Sabo said. "You may be the person in need of assistance from the fire department at 5 a.m. It may be your parents' home, or your children's. We can all join forces and address this issue."

So far, no habitual offenders have been fined, Sabo said, but the door-to-door efforts and phone calls are ongoing, with many users saying they will change their ways.

The East End, Romaine said, is a bit different than Brookhaven Town, due to a more shallow aquifer, coupled with users who have "great wealth, using a tremendous amount of water."

Southold Town Supervisor Scott Russell, speaking on the refusal of residents to heed the call, said: "You would hope that people who support preservation, protecting the water quality of our bays and protecting our natural resources would hold preservation of our water supply in the same regard. Unfortunately, there's no code that bans hypocrisy."

And, said Mattituck resident Teresa McCaskie: "I'm speechlesss, really. The abuse is never-ending and our precious environment continues to suffer."

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