Drought Watch in North Carolina

We've had a fair amount of wet weather lately. In fact, it rained a lot this morning on our excursion to the New Hope Valley Railroad with the kids (a fun trip on an early 20th c. steam engine, if you live near Raleigh).

What we fail to realize is that even with copious amounts of rain, that water conservation in the southeast is critical to our ecosystem. Even more apparent is that the lack of water is eventually going to hit our communities where it hurts the most: in our pocketbooks. A few years ago, Michael Walden, an economist from NC State estimated that every time the state's water supply drops 10%, $50 to $100 million is lost. North Carolina is already cutting funding across the board to meet budget shortfalls. With a potentially severe drought on the horizon, money may not be available to recover.

In this morning's paper, the Army Corps of Engineers reported that inflow to Jordan Lake (the area's water supply reservoir) is about 20% of normal levels for this time of year..... but it has been raining... apparently not enough. We're about 2 inches low from July alone, and about 4-1/2 inches low for the year (roughly 15%). The drought monitor for the state ( http://www.ncdrought.org/ ) shows most of the state as "Abnormally Dry." My guess is that by the end of August into September, we'll be looking at water restrictions and at least "moderate drought" conditions. This change is occurring just a short time after the area was considered in "normal" condition, as recently as 2 weeks ago.

Which brings us to conservation. The good news is that when we look at the numbers over the past three years, water use in Durham and Raleigh has dropped about 10% (Durham: 12%, Raleigh 8%; data from the respective cities and the News & Observer). Water Conservation has become a buzzword among developers and legislators alike. With stormwater regulations becoming more stringent and parcels for development getting smaller, using collected rainwater is quickly becoming a viable and cost-effective measure for low-impact development.

The Town of Apex, a suburb of Raleigh, is getting ready to discuss (and probably approve) a pretty spectacular undertaking which will add about $6 billion to the Town's tax base. Veridea will be a planned mixed-use development of about 1,000 acres. The kicker is that Veridea is being planned "green". If it all comes to fruition, it will be one of the most sustainable developments in the world. My understanding is that it will be environmentally neutral... carbon, water, waste, etc. Neutral. If they can complete this project as planned, it will be an amazing feat... and a necessary one.

We have a long way to go to consider ourselves good stewards of the watersheds in the southeast. Happily, we are making strides toward that goal, and as the water resources become more scarce, we'll have some development in place to use as examples for others coming late to the game. We'll find out more in the coming weeks. There's a public hearing in Apex on August 18. More to come...

Lake Powell Crisis from 2000 to 2005

Lake Powell in Southern Utah is one of the most drastic examples of the water crisis we are having, which will only continue to get worse over time. From 2000 to 2005, the volume of the man-made lake has dropped from 20 million acre-feet (about 6.5 trillion gallons) to 8 million acre-feet (about 2.6 trillion gallons). Thats a 60% drop in volume over the span of the 5-year drought. Over the past few years, Lake Powell has rebounded a bit, but all evidence points to another serious drop in volume when the next major drought hits the Colorado River valley. The video shows the banks of the lake over the 5 year span when the drought was worst.

Tuscon's Rainwater Harvesting Ordinance

The City of Tucson passed a rainwater ordinance (passed 10/2008) requiring rainwater harvesting for new commercial development! It doesn't go into effect until June 2010, but it's a big step for a good sized city.

The ordinance requires new commercial development to get 50% of their landscaping water from rainwater collection. The City website has a rainwater harvesting site with info, resources and a water budget spreadsheet.

The worksheet isn't quite as user friendly as it could be, but the developer has her name and contact information on the spreadsheet, so she's open to suggestions and comments. Kudos to the City of Tucson and Ann Audrey from the Tucson Office of Conservation and Sustainable Development.

http://www.tucsonaz.gov/ocsd/sustainability/water/rainwaterharvesting.php

Colorado's new legislation on rainwater collection

the State of Colorado is finally beginning to give in a little bit regarding the long-standing law banning rainwater collection for private use... The state Senate has approved a bill (09-080) which allows a very specific group of residents to collect rainwater from their own roof with the following conditions...

the collection area must be less than 3,000sf, AND

there is no municipal water supply available, AND

they have, or apply for and receive a well permit.

as long as the intended use doesn't conflict with what is allowed on the well permit.

According to the brief published by the State,

http://water.state.co.us/pubs/pdf/RainWaterBills.pdf

even if you have a valid well permit that restricts your water use to domestic uses, this does not include watering a garden or greenhouse.

This Bill is a good start, but we'll see how much of an effect it has. It's pretty specific, and even their FAQ page makes it sound like they're only budging a little bit.