New York Gets Steady Stream of Water Requests

The Guggenheim Museum got extra air conditioning for its Picassos. A Brooklyn church used a fire hydrant for a mass baptism. When it came to seltzer in a fountain, though, the city drew the line.

In New York City, the hottest variance in town--and the toughest to finagle--is an exemption from strict drought restrictions on water use.

Of the 534 persons who have sought permission to use water in banned ways--from a homeowner worried that fireworks would ignite a bird’s nest to computer operators fearing mainframe meltdowns if they didn’t get more air conditioning--just 102 have made it so far.

The culprit is the city’s worst drought in 20 years, an 11-inch rain shortfall that’s left reservoirs in the Catskill Mountains only half, instead of the usual 86%, full.

City officials call the drought rules the strictest in the nation. There is a $500 fine for watering a lawn. Every shower in town must have a water-saving head. Ornamental fountains stand dry.

A rare sure spot to cool off is a museum: Five have won air conditioning variances by arguing that heat can damage irreplaceable art. At the Guggenheim Museum, an ice cube among the coals of Fifth Avenue, it’s an arctic 70 degrees.

“It’s one of the few places you can walk into and enjoy the air conditioning with relatively little guilt,” said museum spokesman Richard Pierce. “It feels wonderful, I must say.”

The board in effect gave itself permission to use a fire hydrant for a drought awareness film. The United House of Prayer for All People in Brooklyn got use of a fire hydrant to baptize about 250 worshipers last month.

Other applicants had their hopes, not their sins, washed away. One proposed to use seltzer, instead of city water, in an ornamental fountain. “It’s still water,” Richard said.