For the first time, communities that depend on the lakes are collaborating on a regional drought plan, imposing water-use restrictions and raising water rates by as much as 40 percent.

Today, Santa Barbara's main reservoir, Lake Cachuma, is five feet from overflowing, and the city recently ended years of stringent water-use restrictions.

Northeastern New Jersey remained under a drought warning, with water-use restrictions, for a third day.

Then the automatic sprinklers can be turned off when it rains or there is need to comply with water-use restrictions.

The state first imposed water-use restrictions last March, after a dry winter, and has been tinkering with them ever since as reservoir levels have risen and fallen.

During drought or other emergency, cities and counties can enact outdoor water-use restrictions, however some cross-jurisdiction water systems have also acted to put bans in place.

And no one, they stressed, is remotely considering relaxing water-use restrictions.

He has formed a drought task force that will submit recommendations for water-use restrictions within a week.

The drought appears to have ended around Santa Barbara on the once-parched central coast, and Los Angeles and other cities are relaxing water-use restrictions.

Despite toughened water-use restrictions imposed by the state, one problem that the Westbury project is unlikely to have is that of water availability, the Hempstead official said.