A drought emergency is a concentrated management phase designed to marshal
all available resources to respond to actual emergency conditions, to avoid
depletion of water sources, to assure at least minimum water supplies to protect
public health and safety, to support essential and high priority water uses
and to avoid unnecessary economic dislocations. During this phase, mandatory
restrictions are imposed on nonessential water uses as provided for in 4 PA
Code Chapter 119. The objective of water use restrictions and other conservation
measures during this phase is to reduce consumptive water use in the affected
area by at least 15 percent, and to reduce total use to the extent necessary
to preserve public water system supplies, to avoid or mitigate local or area
shortages, and to assure equitable sharing of limited supplies. During a drought
emergency, public water suppliers are authorized to institute water rationing,
if mandatory restrictions prove insufficient to protect supplies and if approved
by the Commonwealth Drought Coordinator.