Danvers Water Ban Extended While Rain Brings Hope For End Soon

DANVERS, MA — For more than three months Danvers residents have not been able to water their lawns with sprinklers, wash their cars or fill their swimming pools because of scant water flow in the Ipswich River and low reservoir levels.

Typically, all seasonal water restrictions expire on Sept. 30 in the town as demand decreases and water levels catch up to where they need to be to fulfill basic needs.

But for the third time in 20 time years this October, the restrictions were extended in Danvers for at least a bit longer with hopes that this week's rain could finally spell their end.

"The bottom line is that at the end of September we looked at the reservoir levels and they did not allow us to get out of Level 6 (restrictions)," Danvers Department of Public Works Director David Lane told Patch on Wednesday. "Now we've had some rain events lately so we are looking closely at the reservoirs because they are now starting to recover."

Lane said that while this year's Level 5 restrictions in place since early July banning sprinklers and car washing and Level 6 restrictions since August banning all outdoor water use — which includes a potential citation and fine for any outdoor water use — are extreme, they are not unprecedented.

He told Patch the restrictions lasted past Oct. 1 in both 2002 and 2008 with 2002 "definitely worse than this."

While annual restrictions as part of the state-mandated actions taken to protect the stressed Ipswich River watershed are part of summer life in Danvers, this year they started earlier and were more restrictive than usual amid the drought that has gripped the northeast part of the state for months and contributed to several wildfires this summer.

Lane said the town put up a bunch of door hangers making sure residents knew about the rapid escalation of restrictions — and then issued what he called "a bunch of second-warning letters" — but he said the town was able to avoid the $300-per-offense fines that follow when the warnings are unheeded.

"We saw a lot of corrective action after the warning letters," he said. "That's our goal. Our goal is to get people to comply and not have to issue the citations."

While most residents are not exactly clamoring to water their lawns or fill a swimming pool in the weeks leading up to Halloween, a long-overdue car wash could finally be in the cards before more longer in town despite another extended dry spell forecast on the way.

"The rain (on Wednesday) is making us very hopeful," Lane said.

(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)