Atlantic City Water Restrictions 2026

New Jersey has been under a statewide NJDEP Drought Warning since December 5, 2025, the third of four NJDEP tiers after Normal, Watch, and Warning, with Emergency being the most severe. The warning is voluntary: NJDEP asks every resident to cut back on water use and recommends limiting lawn watering to two days per week. Only the Governor can escalate to a mandatory Drought Emergency with enforceable restrictions and fines. NJDEP Acting Commissioner Ed Potosnak has urged continued voluntary conservation, and State Geologist Steven Domber described conditions as a chronic water supply drought, the scale of which the state has not seen in more than twenty years. New Jersey has recorded below-normal precipitation in 20 of the last 24 months.

Atlantic City is served by the Atlantic City Municipal Utilities Authority (ACMUA), a municipal utility headquartered on North Virginia Avenue. ACMUA draws the city's drinking water almost entirely from groundwater, pumping a network of wells screened in the Cohansey aquifer of the Kirkwood-Cohansey system, supplemented by a small amount of local pond storage. The deeper, confined Atlantic City 800-foot Sand aquifer is the principal regional supply for Jersey Shore communities and underlies the area as a critical backup source. Unlike utilities in North Jersey that rely on large surface reservoirs, ACMUA has no major upland reservoir, so the city's supply depends directly on how well rainfall recharges these sandy coastal aquifers.

That groundwater dependence is why a prolonged drought matters so much in Atlantic City. Aquifers recharge slowly, and decades of heavy pumping near the coast have already pulled water levels in the Atlantic City 800-foot Sand below sea level, raising long-standing concerns about saltwater intrusion into well fields. A dry year does not refill these formations the way a wet spring refills a reservoir, so the effects of the current drought will linger underground even after rain returns.

South Jersey has been living with drought longer than the rest of the state. The NJDEP Coastal South region, which includes Atlantic County, was placed under a drought warning back in the fall of 2024, well before the statewide warning of December 2025. For a barrier-island city like Atlantic City, sitting on sandy, fast-draining soil between the bay and the ocean, conserving water now protects both the aquifers residents drink from and the coastal water table itself.

This deficit has accumulated over the current water year and represents a significant departure from historical averages for the Atlantic City area. Water supply reservoirs and aquifer levels are below seasonal targets, prompting regional voluntary conservation guidance.