Residents and businesses in Durham, NC, have been told that they must cut water use by another 20% after months of cut-backs that resulted in a decrease of 31% or face the possibility of water rationing and loss of production for businesses as the city struggles with the worst water shortage in its history. Durham, part of the rapidly growing Triangle area, is reaching its growth limit.
Durham, with just 59 [50 as of today] days left in its main water supply, could be on the front lines of this worst-case scenario.
Up to now, the prospect has been too far-fetched to entertain in detail, which is why there are few specifics in Durham ordinances about what would happen if the drought doesn't let up. Raleigh also lacks a set plan for an end-times-type drought.
Durham would ban industrial water use -- a potentially devastating economic blow. It would hit water-driven businesses such as car washes and laundries directly but also could force businesses to cut shifts or even lay off workers.
Residential water would be rationed, but it's unknown how that would be implemented.
http://www.newsobserver.com/...
The company where I work has reduced the water pressure in its buildings by 50% and employees are encouraged to use a hand sanitizer instead of washing hands under the faucet. Supply water to the urinals has been completely cut off and custodial staff flush those every two hours with an antibacterial solution in response to the city’s demands that:
"All industrial, manufacturing and commercial enterprises shall reduce consumption with a goal reduction of at least 50 percent and document the specific efforts they have made to reduce consumption."
http://www.durhamnc.gov/...
Since climatologists predict a warm but dry winter, we are entering a state of emergency with far-reaching consequences nobody is quite prepared to manage. If the spring rains are not plentiful enough to replenish our dried-up lakes and streams and saturate our baked fields and parched forests, we are in unchartered territory. It is one thing to see our grass turn brown; it is another to watch our trees dying of thirst. These maps starkly illustrate this growing disaster:
http://www.drought.unl.edu/...
http://droughtreporter.unl.edu/...
As far back as twenty years ago, scientists were sounding the alarm about the potentially catastrophic effects of global warming. One of the predictions made was a much drier Southeast with prolonged drought conditions becoming a common weather pattern.
http://www.2news.tv/...
Like other parts of the US, NC faced a severe drought from 2002-2004. Much was promised then but little done after the rains returned. The municipalities that followed through on those recommendations, like Cary and Chapel Hill, for example, are in better shape now than their neighbors next door. However, even with better planning, waste water recycling, and increased access to alternative water resources, the Triangle—like other areas where growth outpaces available resources—faces an uncertain future as droughts become more frequent.
On the plus side, if drought conditions persist plans for a second nuclear reactor at Shearon Harris in southern Wake County may have to be abandoned. The current lake levels at Lake Harris barely support the existing reactor. Another 2.8 foot drop may shut down the reactor completely.
http://www.nbc17.com/...
Also, the new coal-fired power plant Duke Energy wants to build in Charlotte is being challenged as the plant will use more water than all of Charlotte combined.
http://www.ncwarn.org/...
It has become clear to most people here that a fundamental overhaul is needed in how we manage this endangered resource. Using water to transport waste—a practice dating back to the Romans—is just not sustainable any longer. Alternative waste removal technologies have existed for decades but were always considered too expensive as compared to water. That will not be the case in the very near future.
Restrictions on North Carolinians to reuse gray water from their showers and bath tubs on their gardens—currently illegal—makes no sense at all given the fact that municipalities make treated sewage sludge available as fertilizer to farmers and gardeners! Knowing what might be contained in treated sewage sludge, euphemistically called bio-solids to quash the gag effect, I would vastly prefer to put my own bathwater on my rose bushes. http://www.ejnet.org/...
Our building practices are a huge contributor to water waste. Urbanization increases surface runoff by creating more impervious surfaces (paved areas and buildings) that do not let the water percolate through the soil to the aquifer below. Instead the water runs directly into streams or storm drains. Increased runoff reduces groundwater recharge, thus lowering the water table and making droughts worse, especially for farmers and rural residents who depend on wells.
Mandating rain or bog gardens in subdivisions would offset some of the negative impact of development on our water supply. A rain garden is a planted depression that collects runoff from roofs, driveways, walkways, and compacted areas and percolates it downwards to recharge the groundwater table. Rain gardens can also cut the amount of pollution reaching our creeks and streams by up to 30%.
Many people demand more access to our aquifers, but municipalities are hesitant to increase the number of well permits significantly—and with good reason! We only have to look to the dangerously depleted aquifers in China, North Africa, Mexico and the Ogallala Aquifer in the US Great Plains to know what happens if we start using up our water capital instead of living within the limits of available surface water.
http://www.greatlakesdirectory.org/...
We are facing a water crisis of catastrophic proportions, and we need to change the way we (mis)use water now! The measures proposed by panicked city officials to this crisis are band-aids at best. What we really need are radical policy changes to secure a safe, sustainable water supply in a rapidly changing climate. And we needed to start yesterday!