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Almost all of North Carolina is now
classified as being in a drought,
ranging from extreme to severe in the
western counties, moderate for the broad
middle of the state out to the coast,
with only a few coastal counties rated
as extremely dry.
You can see this week’s
updated drought monitor map from the
Division of Water Resources by going to
http://www.ncwater.org/Drought_Monitoring.
The rainfall deficits proved
by the National Weather Service tell the
story. As of July 23, there was a
14.58-inch deficit in Wilmington, a
10.45-inch deficit at Cape Hatteras, a
10.16-inch deficit at Asheville, and a
7.01-inch deficit in Greensboro. The
Raleigh-Durham area posted only a
3.86-inch deficit, thanks to some recent
rain events.
The level at Falls Lake, the
sole water supply for more than 350,000
people in Raleigh, Wake Forest,
Rolesville, Garner, Knightdale, Wendell
and Zebulon, has been falling all summer
and Wednesday morning had dipped to
248.93 feet above mean sea level. The
normal level is 251.5 feet.
On Monday, when the lake
level 249.1, Terry Brown, the water
control manager for the Wilmington
District of the U.S. Army Corps of
Engineers which owns and operates the
lake and dam, said 75 percent of the
normal water supply remained.
Part of the new water
conservation plan Raleigh has adopted
calls for the city to impose stricter
water rules when the water supply is at
70 percent or below. Those Stage 1 rules
limit lawn irrigation to one day a week
and ban vehicle washing except on
Saturdays and Sundays.
The Stage 2 rules, which can
be imposed when there is 50 percent of
the water supply, ban all outdoor
watering and restrict vehicle washing to
car washes the city has certified as
using water conservation practices.
Currently, residents and
businesses in the city and all the towns
that use its water are supposed to be
following the mandatory year-round
permanent water rules which ban outdoor
watering on Mondays and restrict
watering to three days a week on an
odd-even system.
Many, many people do not
appear to have heard about the new
watering rules, though Wake Forest’s
Deputy Town Manager Roe O’Donnell sees
some improvement. “I think what we’re
starting to see is fewer people watering
on the wrong day.” However, “We did see
some watering today (Monday).”
Across the water system, the
water inspectors have issued well over
300 notices of violation and at least
one $50 fine.
There has not been much of a
drop in usage, especially when the
temperature is over 90 degrees.
During the week of July 16,
there were two days when Wake Forest
residents used 4.5 million gallons,
close to the 4.91-mgd limit for peak use
until 2010 that is part of the town’s
merger contract with Raleigh.
“This week looks a little
better,” O’Donnell said, but the heat
and humidity have abated for a time.
Last month O’Donnell told
the town board the town would most
likely have to purchase additional water
capacity from Raleigh in 2009. The
amount the town will have to purchase
can be from 800,000 to 1.5 million
gallons depending on water use. The
current cost of water capacity is $5 a
gallon.
The town board has passed a
resolution strongly discouraging the use
of treated drinking water for outdoor
irrigation in new and existing
subdivisions, and many of the newer
subdivisions have accepted a condition
that they use only water from wells or
ponds.
One deterrent to lawn
irrigation is the $2,500 cost. Raleigh
has begun requiring a second separate
meter for irrigation, and Wake Forest
requires a $1,630.14 impact fee for that
meter. |
