As of Tuesday, the city of Kingston is under a drought emergency. Water Department customers are now under mandatory water use restrictions.

Doug Kleeschulte, the general manager at Scrub-a-Dub Car Wash, is gearing up for a deluge. The Ulster car wash has Kingston residents visiting and partially uses water recycling, which is helpful during drought conditions.

“It goes through a filtration process. It goes through a tank, then it goes through different specifications to make sure that the water is still good to use to wash a car,” Kleeschulte said.

What You Need To Know

  • Kingston Water Department customers are now under mandatory water use restrictions

  • The first phase includes only watering lawns between 9-10 p.m. and not washing cars at your home

  • If residents are found violating these, they will be fined $50 per occurrence

The Kingston Board of Water Commissioners officially declared a drought emergency in the city this week. Kingston Mayor Steve Noble said taking major action now can avoid drastic action later.

“This is the first stage of that emergency, where basically we’re asking all residents to stop any leaks that they have in their homes, to be able to make sure that they’re taking all of the regulations seriously,” Noble said.

The city said it had to double down to save water because of drought-like conditions, along with the city’s reservoir project and water levels at Kingston’s Cooper Lake Reservoir being lower than they should be right now.

“As part of this first phase, you’re only allowed to water your plants once a day from 9 p.m. to 10 p.m.,” Noble said.

Other restrictions include not washing driveways, sidewalks or your own car at home.

Noble said it is OK for pools with recirculating water to continue operating, so Kingston’s Andretta Pool will remain open for now.

“If you need to refill to bring the water level back up, that is allowed in recirculating pools,” Noble said. “If we get further into the drought emergency and have to declare other phases, it may trigger that not being allowed.”

Neighbors Spectrum News 1 spoke to said they understand.

“It starts small. It starts with a drought in a lake, and then it goes further. We might not have that lake if we don’t take care of our planet,” said Cherish Nguyen Tran of Kingston.

“Water is a critical resource,” said Shawn Keizer of Ulster. “We only have so much water available, and if it runs out, what happens if we run out of water?”

If residents are found violating these water usage restrictions, they will be fined $50 per occurrence.

For a full list of the regulations and more information, visit kingston-ny.gov/water.