most of New Jersey is facing severe drought conditions that have fueled wildfires and added to their dangers during a public hearing today the state DEP addressed whether it'll issue a Statewide drought warning which is expected to come tomorrow senior correspondent Brenda Flanagan reports on the latest conditions and what that warning will mean for you you can see a a very Bleak picture across the entire State one that is only worsening New Jersey scientists at a DEP public hearing gave Grim reports the state desperately needs rain wildfires rage through Tinder dry forests streams rivers and Reservoir levels have dropped they're below 45% at Wanaque which supplies millions of people across North Jersey these are low levels and they're dropping and and we look they believe they will continue to drop over the coming weeks unless we receive uh significant rainfall events the DEP needed to gather this data before deciding whether to declare a drought warning Jersey's already in a drought watch after logging its third driest September this year and the state broke records for lack of rainfall last month to add insult to injury Along came a map I never thought in my 30 plus years as state climatologist I would see and that was essentially a shutout for precipitation in the month of October the state averaged 0.02 inches of rainfall in October a normal would be 4.19 in a drought warning declaration by D commissioner sha larette could involve restrictions on reservoirs and water companies it's one level below a water emergency declaration by the governor in Livingston where a wildfire flared over 190 Acres 2 weeks ago Water Department officials complained the DEP should have acted sooner that's sort of a double whammy effect in that you know we have this risk of wildfire and then we need to use our water resources to fight these fires so um you know I really think that this declaration um to warning should could have occurred sooner if this drought persists into next year that we're really going to get slammed he joined several Advocates and water managers to urge that the DEP crack down on folks who water their lawns and issue mandatory water restrictions and I have to agree uh using drinking water to water Lawns is kind of crazy always has been um my comment is I thought the drought watch warning was late and I would really like to move to Drought emergency so that we stop people from ordering their lawns the point that really has to be made is that that one out of every three gallons that's being used in the summer is lawn irrigation the small fraction of of uh homeowners that are irrigating we have to we have to start putting some type of regulation on those the droughts having an outsized impact on farms and also worries homeowners who both draw their supplies from groundwater it's been pretty brutal obviously above normal temperature uh the winds it's been it seems unusually windy and Breezy which just adds insult to injury um we've been managing our vegetable crops with uh we only use drip irrigation but we've been running it you know pretty much Non-Stop I would like to know if there if anyone is collecting any information on the private drinking water wells and if and if there's been any reports of private drinking Wells being negatively impacted by the drought the deadly wildfires and water restrictions arise from climate change said conservation Advocate Doug O'Malley we are not Arizona of course uh but culturally we kind of act like we never will become Arizona and that that's obviously huge red flag because climate change means that we do see extremes on both sides we we're obviously in the midst of one of those extremes right now the DEP is expected to issue a drought declaration update tomorrow I'm Brenda Flanagan NJ Spotlight news [Music]