Demandfor reservoir water temporarily spiked by 20 percent after the stateissued a drought watch for North Jersey last week, as municipalitiesand water utilities rushed to top off their own reservoirs and storagetanks, an official said.

Water utilities on Monday were not able to provide day-to-dayfigures that might show whether the state's call for voluntaryconservation in Bergen, Passaic and three other counties has beenheeded by residential users.

But water officials have said a similar appeal in July helpedstabilize use after several extremely hot days sparked a huge surge indemand.

And the state's climatologist says there's no way to tell whetherthe conditions that have put pressure on the water supply — hotter thannormal temperatures and lower than normal rainfall — will changeanytime soon.

In fact, the state Department of Environmental Protection hasscheduled a public hearing to discuss replacing the drought watch witha more dire drought warning for the region, a move that would triggerbans on certain water use including lawn watering and car washing.

The last time New Jersey experienced a drought emergency was 2002.

The DEP's drought watch announcement last week "caused an immediatesurge" in demand, said Colleen DeStefano, deputy executive director ofthe North Jersey District Water Supply Commission, which runs theWanaque and Monksville reservoirs that provide water to bothmunicipalities and utilities. "Everyone wanted to top off theirreservoirs."

The commission supplies United Water, the Passaic Valley Water Commission and individual cities and towns from Wayne to Newark.

DeStefano said many of the commission's municipal and utilityclients have been allowed to overdraft — that is, they're taking morewater than they are normally allocated, because of the increased demandon their supplies.

The Wanaque Reservoir, which has a capacity of 29 billion gallons,is down to 17.6 billion, or 59.6 percent of capacity, compared with93.3 percent last year at this time. "We're concerned," DeStefano said.

Normally, the smaller Monksville reservoir is not tapped until latein October, but the commission may have to do it sooner this year.

The Oradell Reservoir — one of four operated by United Water, whichserves about 800,000 customers in Bergen and Hudson counties — is at 47percent of capacity, said United Water spokeswoman Sonja Clark.Combined, she said, the four are at 51 percent of capacity, compared toabove 90 percent last summer.

The Oradell has taken on a greenish tinge because the lower waterlevels have allowed seeds to germinate and grow. In addition, the hotweather has increased water temperatures, encouraging more algae tobloom.

The Wanaque reservoir system also has an emergency backup source of water — pumps along the Passaic and Ramapo rivers.

Normally, the DEP does not allow the commission to pump from therivers until September, because dwindling river flows affect pollutionlevels and can harm fish and wildlife. The commission has petitionedthe DEP to start pumping now, but so far the state has not grantedpermission, DeStefano said.

"The DEP is continuing to closely monitor all of the droughtindicators for each of the state's drought regions," said spokesmanLarry Hajna.

Hajna said the DEP will hold a public hearing at the MillburnLibrary in Essex County at 10:30 a.m. Aug. 25 on whether to issue adrought warning for the Northeast region, which includes Bergen,Passaic, Essex, Morris and Hudson counties.

Things would be far more dire if not for a very wet March. "Marchalso ended the wettest 12-month period on record, so that has provideda cushion, and ground water levels are still OK," said stateclimatologist David Robinson.

E-mail: oneillj@northjersey.com