It's Already Water Restriction Season In Danvers

DANVERS, MA — A weekend of heavy rain was not enough to delay the start of annual outdoor water restrictions in Danvers following last summer's historic drought.

The town said that starting Monday it will move to a Level 2 water restriction that allows for outdoor lawn and garden watering only from 7 p.m. to 8 a.m. each day.

The restrictions hit severe levels last summer when Danvers reached Level 5 - a ban on all outdoor sprinklers, car washing and filling swimming pools — by July 6 and went to the highest Level 6 restriction — a ban on all outdoor water use — on Aug. 29 that lasted until the end of the growing season.

"Conserving water now will reduce the need for the town to implement more stringent restrictions later," the town said in a news release on Monday. "The small changes you make can make a big difference."

Danvers faces restrictions annually as part of the Ipswich River Basin, a highly stressed river basin under the watch of the state Department of Environmental Protection.

The town is restricted to using 3.8 million gallons of water per day from May 1 through Oct. 1.

(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.)