Dry Manhattan

New Yorkers, as the perception goes, are in general a contentious lot, given to scoffing at petty laws and sneering at the idea of sacrifice for the greater good of all. Ask an Archie Bunker to save water, and what sort of reply are you likely to get? Not likely a printable answer.

But perceptions can be wrong, and New Yorkers, in fact, have reacted with relative enthusiasm to appeals for conserving water during one of Gotham’s periodic droughts. City officials say that consumption has been cut about 17% during the five months of the current emergency. Mayor Ed Koch challenged his constituents to do better after grading them on the effort so far: “I would say B-minus. It was good, but not good enough . . . . We’ve got to keep trying.”

Commercial, industrial and institutional users have been ordered to cut consumption by 25%, and a vigorous enforcement program is under way. About 7,500 violators have been assessed fines totaling $800,000.

Even greater gains can be achieved in future years when the city finally decides to install water meters in residences and is able to stem the prolific leaks in its antiquated distribution system.

New York officials feared that this summer’s conservation program would get out of hand during the hottest days of August, when New Yorkers traditionally open neighborhood fire hydrants for some impromptu splashing in the cool streams. The pessimistic forecast was that daily consumption would soar to 1.8 billion gallons with as many as 1,000 hydrants flowing. But only a few hydrants were tapped, and usage was held to 1.3 billion gallons--still below the normal daily average.

New Yorkers’ willingness to save water will be tested at least through the winter, and very likely into next summer, unless the city’s watershed is blessed with extraordinarily wet weather. So far they have shown that conservation, without major inconvenience, can produce significant savings.