Take shorter showers, stop automatically watering the lawn and limit your water usage in general.
That's what Aqua Pennsylvania is asking of its Southeastern Pennsylvania customers after the utility had to close its water treatment plants in Phoenixville, Chester County, due to flooding and power outages left in the wake of the remnants of Hurricane Ida pounding the Philadelphia suburbs.
"Aqua Pennsylvania asks customers throughout its southeastern Pennsylvania service area to discontinue nonessential water use until further notice as the utility works to restore normal operations at two major water treatment plants that sustained damage due to the devastating floods caused by the remnants of Hurricane Ida," the utility said in a news release.
"...we ask customers to take all possible measures to curtail water use until further notice. Those who have automatic lawn sprinklers are advised to turn them off."
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In a tweet, Aqua added taking shorter showers and limiting washing machine and dishwasher use to the list of what customers can do to help.
The water usage restrictions are in place "until further notice."
Aqua delivers water to around 1.4 million across 32 counties -- including parts of Berks, Bucks, Chester, Delaware and Montgomery counties -- in the Keystone State.
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The damage to the water treatment plants was "greater than previously thought," Aqua said. It will take some time to fix the issues.
The utility understands that some people are dealing with much larger issues as Aqua's workers get things back on track.
“The remnants of Hurricane Ida wreaked havoc throughout southeastern Pennsylvania,” Aqua Pennsylvania President Marc Lucca said. “And our thoughts and prayers are with all of the people devastated by terrible flooding, tornadoes and high winds. Our employees are working tirelessly to restore full water supply to serve the families, businesses and communities who rely on us, and we appreciate our customers’ cooperation by conserving water.”
