HARRISBURG, PA — Following a meeting of the Commonwealth Drought Task Force, the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) will maintain a statewide drought watch. While not required, residents and non-farm businesses are encouraged to voluntarily conserve water by reducing their nonessential water use.

Drought watch declarations are not based on one indicator alone, such as amount of precipitation. DEP assesses information provided by public water suppliers and data on four hydrologic indicators: precipitation, surface water (stream and river) flow, groundwater level and soil moisture. While the recent rainfall has been welcome, a spokesman said, there are still persistent precipitation deficits statewide. Persistent rain will be needed for more consistent meaningful improvement to groundwater levels.

A drought watch is the second of four levels of drought conditions in PA: the scale goes from normal, to drought watch, to drought warning and then to drought emergency.