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The eyes of the Raleigh Public Utilities
Department are focused on Tropical Storm
Dean because it could break the drought
and fill Falls Lake.
Without Dean or some
appreciable rainfall soon, the city is
poised to begin Stage 1 water
conservation which will restrict outdoor
irrigation to one day a week and vehicle
washing to weekends.
Falls Lake, the drinking
water source for about 400,000 people,
stood at 247.75 feet above mean sea
level Wednesday morning, more than three
and a half feet below its normal pool
level of 251.5 feet.
Terry Brown, the water
control manager for the Wilmington
District of the U.S. Army Corps of
Engineers, reported the water supply
pool in the lake was at 65 percent.
“It is expected the lake
level will drop during the summer,” Ed
Buchan, a water conservation specialist
with Raleigh Public Utilities, said
Tuesday, “but it has been dropping
precipitously as it did during the
droughts of ’02 and ’05. It is very
reminiscent of those years.”
According to the Corps,
Buchan said, the month just past has
been the driest July in 80 years of
records.
Also, temperatures above 100
degrees last week triggered a record
usage Thursday, Aug. 9, of 77 million
gallons. “Anytime it’s hot there’s a lot
of water consumed,” Buchan said, and
attributed a significant amount to
outdoor irrigation.
Buchan said one of the
triggers for Stage 1 conservation has
been meet – the water supply remaining
has dropped below 70 percent – and the
Raleigh City Council has given City
Manager Russell Allen the authority to
declare the stricter water rules.
The decision will have to be
made by Dale Crisp, the director of
public utilities, who was out of the
office because of a death in the family.
Crisp would consult with the National
Weather Service, the Corps of Engineers
and the cities of Goldsboro and Clayton,
who both withdraw drinking water from
the Neuse, before making a decision.
In Wake Forest, Deputy Town
Manager Roe O’Donnell said consumption
has decreased and there have been no
peaks in the water use. “We’re
significantly down,” he said and added
that for the most part people have been
complying with the three-day-a-week
schedule: odd-numbered addresses
watering on Tuesday, Thursday and
Saturday, even numbered-addresses
watering on Wednesday, Friday and
Sunday.
Also, some of the water Wake
Forest residents use does not come from
Falls Lake. The City of Raleigh is
continuing to operate the G.G. Hill
Water Treatment Plant on N.C. 98 (Wait
Avenue) and pumps about 1.2 mgd into the
town’s water pipes each day. |
