Community Corner
Long Islanders Use Most Water on Lawns
Ninety percent of the water used on Long Island on a hot summer day is used on lawns, according to report.
The pride of many Long Island homeowners–their prolific, magnificent green lawns–has come at a cost to the region's water supply.
According to a Newsday report, most of the water Long Islanders use–a full 90 percent on a blistering summer day–is being doused on lawns.
Long Islanders use an average of 130 gallons of water a day, but that figure balloons to 500 gallons a day in the summer, the report says.
Those numbers are well higher than the average water use across the country and that has some experts concerned.
"Long Island uses its water carelessly," Richard Amper, the executive director of the Long Island Pine Barrens Society, told Newsday. "We don't think about it in terms of quality or quantity."
Nassau officials have raised concerns that water overuse is depleting its aquifers, but James Gaughran, the chairman of the Suffolk County Water Authority, told Newsday Suffolk was in better shape, saying ""We have plenty [of water]. . . The aquifer is always recharging."
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