Process Description:
Drought regions are based on, but differ from, the five watershed regions defined by the NJDEP. The arrangement of the drought regions account for certain regulatory considerations and the architecture of their water-supply distribution systems. Watershed boundaries primarily occur along natural topographic divides between drainage basins. In contrast, drought-region boundaries match with municipal boundaries in order to facilitate the administration of water-restriction practices. Municipalities also receive water supplies from different sources including man-made water-distribution systems. The drought regions were created to reflect many of these water-supply factors. Version 1 of the drought regions were defined using the following logic: (1) Drought regions were initially based on the New Jersey water regions as defined by the NJDEP Watershed Management program. Municipalities that were covered by two or more water regions were assigned to the region covering the largest fractional percentage of the municipality. (2) Monmouth County municipalities were assigned to the central region because the water sources and transfer methods more closely resembles municipalities in the central region than in the southeast region. (3) Municipalities in the Delaware Bay watersheds were assigned to the southeast region rather than the southwest region because most of the water supplied to this area is groundwater, whereas surface water is a more important source of water supply for the southwest region. (4) Municipalities near region boundaries were evaluated and assigned to a region having the most similar water-supply characteristics. Changes made in Version 2 reflect comments received on Version 1, and were amended in the following manner: (5) The southeast region was split into north and south coastal regions based on water-supply considerations. (6) Trenton, Lawrenceville, and Mercerville of Mercer County partially depend on water withdrawn from the Delaware River south of the fall line. They were moved from the northwest region to the southwest region so that Mercer County is only spit among two regions rather than three. Washington Twp, Hopewell and Pennington Boroughs of Mercer County were also moved to the southwest drought region (they were previously assigned to the northwest region). Version 3 of the drought regions was amended in the following manner after they had been used for several years and 2 minor inconsistencies recognized. These changes were made based on analysis of potable water to these municipalities. (1) Roosevelt Boro in Monmouth County was moved to the southwest drought region (from the coastal north). (2) Berlin Twp in Camden County was moved to the coastal south drought region (from the southwest).