Drought fears hit US east coast

Americans are the heaviest water users in the world

By Jane Standley BBC New York correspondent

It's back to the old ways at the Matterhorn Nursery in the village of Spring Valley.

The young plants can only be watered by hand, and then less often - and using less water - than usual.

The sophisticated automatic irrigation has been shut down.

This nursery is under strict drought restrictions

Like much of upstate New York, Rockland Country is under strict drought restrictions.

There's no new stock here - the nursery's trying to just tick over this year - but if it didn't have its own well, it would be out of business by now.

There are few customers anyway.

"Why buy plants, when you can barely keep them alive?" says manager Karl Witte.

Worse to come

"Getting them out of the ground is one thing," he says.

Karl Witte: "It's only going to get hotter"

"But keeping them looking good through the summer, and it's only going to get hotter, that's another.

"We're really just beginning to see the effects now."

And the car wash in the nearby town of Goshen would have been shut down too, if it also didn't have a well to fall back on.

Townsfolk come here to hose their cars down. They can't do it in their driveway anymore.

Temporary fix

Car wash owner Bob Boyle still gets abuse from others who think he is breaking the new strict regulations, by using 70 gallons (265 litres) a car from the tap.

"They don't see the sign" he says.

"I think they can't read, but I have two signs up there saying I'm running off well water. Without it, I'd have gone out of business by now."

At the town reservoir, where a solitary pipe brings water in, Goshen is having to buy it from a better-off neighbour.

But it is a temporary solution.The reservoir is a sorry dried-up sight. And deep down the ground is dry.

This year it just didn't get enough winter snow or rain.

The town's reservoir is at crisis level

This reservoir is at crisis level, 112 inches (2.85m) down on what it should be, with only enough water for another 50 days.

And it is a situation repeated along America's eastern seaboard, all the way from Maine to Georgia, with severe drought warnings in force.

In a nearby tract of woodland, the solution Goshen has come up with can be seen.

Long lengths of heavy pipes have been laid between the trees, ready to carry water pumped from deep underground reserves.

Time for change

But with the weather hotter and drier here, that supply won't last forever.

It is time for Americans to live within their means, says water consultant Jim Ullrich.

"We have to change what we do in, pardon the pun, flush years and conserve our stocks, husband our water resources better," he says.

And so at Elsie's Diner in downtown Goshen, people are having to change their ways.

Diner customer: "We are very wasteful"

Now you only get the traditional free glass of water if you ask for it. American hospitality is having to bend to the shortness of supply.

But the customers seem to agree, believing that even saving water by the glass will help.

One old man declared : "It's a good idea - save the water. You don't miss something till it's gone."

Another customer agrees: "It does save the waste. Usually I would just leave the glass on the table and not touch the water. We Americans are very wasteful."

Americans are the heaviest water users in the world. Some of them use four times as much as Europeans, their closest rivals.

So they may have to save gallons rather than glasses if they want to avoid living with drought.