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The level of Falls Lake, the drinking
water supply for over 350,000 people in
Wake County, has been falling
precipitously in recent days as drought
conditions worsen, and the U.S. Army
Corps of Engineers, which controls the
lake, predicts it will continue to fall,
triggering more water conservation
measures.
Early Wednesday morning,
July 11, the unofficial level of Falls
Lake was 249.6 feet above mean sea
level, almost two feet below its normal
level of 251.5 feet.
On Monday, when the lake
level was half a foot higher than on
Wednesday, the Corps’ weekly report said
the water capacity in the lake was at 81
percent.
Terry M. Brown, the water
control manager for the Corps Wilmington
District, released a prediction Monday
that the lake level would be at 248.55
by July 31, at 246.68 by Aug. 31.
During the drought of 2005,
the lake level fell to 243 feet in
October.
The City of Raleigh, which
treats and supplies the Falls Lake water
to customers across the county, has just
imposed mandatory permanent year-round
water conservation rules which, at
present, limit the use of irrigation
systems to three days a week for any
customer.
The city can go to Stage 1
mandatory water rules when the water
capacity in the lake is at 70 percent or
less, to Stage 2 rules when the capacity
is at 50 percent or less.
If Brown’s prediction is
accurate, there will be 71.7 percent
water capacity in the lake by July 31,
58.7 percent by Aug. 31. A graph his
office prepared in mid-June showed a
rosier picture, with the lake level at
about 249.25 feet by the end of July (75
percent water capacity) and at 248.75
feet (65 percent water capacity) at the
end of August.
Meanwhile, despite the new
conservation measures, Raleigh water
customers have been using record amounts
of water. Saturday, the E.M. Johnson
Water Treatment Plant on Falls of the
Neuse Road recorded an all-time one-day
record, pumping out 70.6 million
gallons.
The city has been enforcing
the new conservation regulations and has
already issued 202 warning citations.
People who the water police find
violating the regulations the second
time face a $50 fine, a $200 civil
penalty for the third offense and
possible loss of water service for the
fourth offense.
Despite some local showers
and thunderstorms, the local rainfall
deficit for the year stood at 4.7 inches
Wednesday, and there are scanty to zero
inflows into Falls Lake from its
tributaries, the Eno, Flat and Little
rivers.
People in the towns of Wake
Forest, Rolesville, Garner, Knightdale,
Wendell and Zebulon have to comply with
the Raleigh water conservation measures
because their water and sewer systems
are owned by Raleigh. |
