by KYW's Lynne Adkins
Following a week of heavy rains and flooding, there is finally some good news to report.
Effective immediately, Pennsylvania residents are no longer under a drought watch.
Pennsylvania's 67 counties have been under a drought watch since April, meaning residents were asked to voluntarily reduce water use.
Ron Ruman, spokesman for the state Department of Environmental Protection, says that surprisingly, torrential rains are not always enough to replenish water resources:
"The ground water was low in most of Pennsylvania, so when you get a hard rain, a lot of the water doesn't get in the ground water. So we had to wait a couple of days until the rains had stopped and make sure enough of it did get in to recharge the ground water before we made the move."
New Jersey has been under a drought watch since last month, but Elaine Makatura, spokeswoman for the state Department of Environmental Protection, says it will remain in place:
"Our stream flows have gone up, our ground water levels have gone up, and our reservoir levels remain at high. However, all we would need is consistently dry days again and those levels would drop rapidly again."
She says a panel will assess water levels for the month of June and decide late next month what action to take.
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