What do you guys think will happen at this meeting with the Mayors of the Cities / Towns that purchase water from the City of Raleigh? It's getting ready to get interesting around here. Alot of businesses will be selling out and laying off, I bet lawsuits will start to pop up. They are now saying Nuclear plants may start having to shut down, that means nobody will be able to afford their electric bill. They also said the SH Nuclear plant loses about 17 MILLION gallons of water a day due to evaporation, thats out of the 33 MILLION gallons a day it sucks up. What if we said, conserve on electricity... and keep all that water in the lake...LOL. The economy sucks right now. I'm just gonna buckle down and ride it out, just like in the 2002 drought.

This was forwarded to me by a concerned colleague. The PWNC has contacted the news source with the hopes of being allowed to provide the positives of our industry services and discourage the bans from being implemented across the board.

Raleigh's water supply holds steady

By Matthew Eisley, Staff Writer

Recent occasional, modest rainfall hasn't raised Falls Lake much, but the precipitation is holding Raleigh's water supply steady at about 30 percent, the lake's manager said today.


Long-term weather forecasts suggest that the trend might continue into the spring, said Terry Brown, water control manager at the Wilmington office of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which built and manages Falls Lake north of Raleigh. More rain expected next week should help, he said. Falls Lake, which supplies drinking water to Raleigh and seven other Wake County towns, is about 8-1/2 feet below its normal elevation. The reservoir reached an all-time low of 10 feet below normal on Christmas Day, before heavy rains raised it about a foot and a half.


By law, constant releases from the lake's dam also keep the Neuse River flowing enough to maintain aquatic life and so that downstream towns such as Smithfield and Goldsboro can draw drinking water from it. As of today, the lake's water supply allocation stands at 30.6 percent of maximum, Brown said.


Dale Crisp, Raleigh's public utilities director, said the city and the towns it provides water to have an estimated 113 days of supply left — until May 14 — based on the last month's use and assuming no further rainfall. Raleigh's rolling 30-day average for daily water consumption has increased during the past week to about 39.6 million gallons a day, up about 400,000 gallons a day, Crisp said.


To help conserve more water, Raleigh's City Council today is considering whether to ban power-washing homes and the watering of plants by hand-held hose, which has been allowed twice a week. Some gardeners, landscapers, and pressure washers oppose the proposed restrictions.

Carolina ProWash

RALEIGH -- Last week's rains added a few days to Raleigh's usable water supply, but nothing more. Tuesday the Raleigh City Council is expected to vote to move into Stage Two restrictions by the middle of the month.

"It won't really affect the average customer," says Mary-Ann Baldwin of Raleigh's City Council. But Stage Two will affect the community as a whole.

The council will likely approve a provision of Stage Two requiring all future housing and commercial building projects to capture the water that is used to flush out and test new water connections. The water could then be reused.

That is a difficult, expensive process that has to be done before a building can lived in or worked in, and having it as a part of Stage Two rules may slow local construction. "It is a logistical challenge, and it is rather inefficient," says Ed Buchan, Water Conservation Specialist for the Public Utilities Department.

Car washes that have not received special certification from the city will be closed under Stage Two. Many working in green industries, like landscaping, will continue to suffer.

"There will be a loss of livelihood in some instances, especially with middle class workers," Baldwin says. "But we're at the point where it hasn't rained, and we're just gonna have to bite the bullet."

As the drought lingers, Stage Two isn't the only thing on the minds of elected leaders.

They're talking about a Stage Three, which doesn't even exist right now. "Everyone is very interested to know, what is the worst case scenario?" asks City Council Member Russ Stephenson.

In a hypothetical Stage Three, dishwashing in restaurants might be prohibited, requiring plastic or paper plates, cups and utensils.

Residents would be asked to go with paper and plastic dishware as well.

All businesses, regardless of what kind of operation they run, might be forced to cut usage by a certain amount.

It's unlikely, however, that Stage Three would include water rationing. "When I think of rationing anyway, I think of, okay, you've got 50 gallons and we turn it off, and we cannot do that," Buchan says. "We don't have the ability or the manpower to go around and turn off water meters all the time."
Stage Two Water Restrictions

Raleigh is set to go to Stage 2 Mandatory Conservation Measures should the water supply dip below 90 days.

The measures:

* Prohibit the use of public water for irrigation;
* Prohibit filling new swimming or wading pools. Water may be added to pools to maintain sanitary operating conditions. Filling of pools drained for repair is prohibited;
* Prohibit washing vehicles at any location, except at car-washing facilities that have been certified by the City to be in compliance with the requirements of the conservation certification program. (The complete list is shown below.) A placard issued by the City must be displayed on the car wash. Also, the City may approve the washing of some vehicles for sanitary purposes (such as solid waste trucks);
* Prohibit washing of areas such as sidewalks, patios, decks, driveways, parking lots, streets and exterior building surfaces, except for soiled areas for the maintenance of public health and sanitary conditions;
* Require that leaking water services or plumbing must be repaired within 24 hours of written notification by the City's Public Utilities Director or service will be interrupted;
* Prohibit the serving of drinking water in restaurants, except upon request;
* Prohibit all non-essential use of water for commercial or public use;
* Prohibit use of water-cooled air conditioners or other equipment that does not recycle cooling water, except when health and safety are adversely affected;
* Requires innkeepers to ask guests spending more than one night to use their towels and bed linens more than once between laundering; and,
* Directs commercial and industrial customers to review water uses and implement industry specific best management water conservation practices.

First violation of the Stage 2 ordinance carries a fine of $1,000. Any recurrence of the violation may result in interruption of water service. There will be a two-week grace period during which the fine will be $250.
(Copyright ©2008 WTVD-TV/DT. All Rights Reserved.)

Carolina ProWash

Better buy a water truck and start hauling. $$$$$ Can you say Monopoly$$$$$ don't wash use the water for other stuff like topping up pools ect, be creative you are sitting on a gold mine!!!!!

DAFF

DAFF MOBILE WASH
WINDSOR, ONTARIO CANADA
DAFFMOBILEWASH@AOL.COM

It's to a point here that some areas will not allow washing, watering, anything recreational at all, even if you can truck water. A larger part of the problem is that now that residents and businesses have been told "no washing" or "no watering", even if you CAN provide water, no one is calling. The officials and press have done their damage by simply (a) misleading people and (b) attaching such a stigma to "wasting water" that phones are not ringing for many many companies, even outside of power washing. Residents of Raleigh have been limited to 35 gallons per person per day......do you realize how little water that is???

Celeste

Carolina ProWash

Unrealistic. I agree about the media, etc. I am just curious how someone can regulate personal water or say "pond water". That would be a lawsuit in itself. I have spoken with plumbers that are down to having one house to plumb. Its BAD. I know I will get complained on and even maybe a ticket, but I will do my part to raise $%#@.
I just notified my main builder that I will be charging for water and hauling. They understood and were ok. If the city stops everything no matter what, its gonna cause alot more problems. Its wait and see.

WATER IS GOLD.

We have yet to see problems like what you are seeing in your area.For 7 weeks now our weather has been rain,snow,freezen rain,sleet,winds 30 to 60,T-storms and just plain old nasty storms.Last night we had T-storms with freezen rain,no major ice build up but flooding everywhere.

I think what you are seeing now is a start of a water shortage in alot of areas in the days to come.Alot of land has been leveled and drainage of water in most areas is fast,it hasn't time to soak back into the ground.

My area is rated number one in rice growing which takes alot of water to grow rice.Its flooded around in april and until around the last of september before the flood is dropped off the crop.That takes alot of water,the sun can lower the flood by 2 to 4 inches aday so the wells run mosty day and night.

I think they will find out the drainage system they have now days in most area's has cost them dearly in water problems.I also think you will see them redo the drainage systems where as to let the water stay in the area's longer as to not reroute for a fast runoff.

When In Doubt Think It Out

I think what some fail to see is that the increase in impervious surfaces (not just here) cause huge problems in nature. Water cannot enter the soil, hence the water tables. It simply runs off and away, not being able to saturate the land. Where there is no saturation, there is no evaporation. Man is making a big damn mess, period.

And on top of that, they don't plan. The lake that Raleigh uses as a main water source was originally built for flood control. Corner were cut and it was dug about 6 feet too shallow. Guess they're paying for that sort of "conservation" now....and passing it on to US!

Celeste

Carolina ProWash

You know, whats really going to hurt is if they go through with a moratorium on development. Thats gonna hurt alot more than just lack of water. I am now hearing that some builders are folding. There are 25% more homes on the market here now, than this time last year. There are so many different businesses that are going under its unreal. They say its the worst drought here in eight hundred years.

We have a drought here every 100 years - you'd think someone wouldv'e noticed that it's been 113 since the last one and planned a little better. Amazing to me how the rest of the state is actually in recovery but Wake County seems to be cursed.

Celeste

Carolina ProWash