Dependable Erection

Tuesday, December 18, 2007

Drought watch

Saturday's rain, about an inch and a half throughout the Triangle, had no appreciable affect on Durham water supplies. INflows at Lake Michie, for example, barely reached 10 cfs, compared to the median of about 65 cfs for this time of year, recorded over the past 81 years. There's now 39 days of "easily accessible" water left in the reservoirs, down from 45 last week. The only good news is that the connection to the Teer Quarry resrvoir should be online inthe next week or so, adding about a month's worth of water to the system. The number of Stage IV exemptions has grown to 19 this week. An exemption allows an organization to do things like use outdoor watering systems or wash vehicles provided "it can be shown to the manager's satisfaction that the licensee's use of water will result in an overall fifty (50) percent or greater reduction in water use." We assume that the golf courses and country clubs with exemptions are simply not watering anywhere near as much as over the summer in order to meet the 50% reduction. Duke University remains conspicuous by its absence from the list of Stage Iv exemptions.

There's a chance of rain in the forecast for the weekend. Let's hope for an early Christmas present of a real gully washer

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6 Comments:

  • Whole Foods is doing its part. No more tap water for restaurant patrons. Instead, buy bottled water trucked in from out-of-state. To be fair, a lot of the bottled water contains electrolytes!

    By Blogger toastie, at 2:50 PM  

  • they're also serving food on paper plates. Someone there must read this blog...

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 8:36 PM  

  • at my home the dog and cat help with the drought. the dog licks the plates and dishes clean. everythings looks like it came right out of the dishwasher.

    the cat is responsible for cleaning my hands, face and neck.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 10:49 AM  

  • Why isn't Durham even considering tapping the Eno River as a water supply source? The flow of the river still seems to be pretty steady. Is the water in the Eno really any dirtier than the "dregs" of Lake Michie?

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 12:30 AM  

  • i'm not a lawyer, but i'd assume that Durham doesn't "own" the water in the Eno.

    By Blogger Barry, at 5:11 AM  

  • I contacted Vicki Westbrook with the water department about the Eno.

    She said Durham has a pump station on the Eno and can take up to 5 million gallons a day from the Eno as long a a minimum flow of 10 million gallons a day is maintained downstream from Durham's intake.

    Unfortunately, the river's flow does not meet the minimun right now, so we cannot pull any water from the Eno at the moment.

    The long term plan is to pump water from the Eno - when the flow is high enough - and dump the water into the Teer Quarry for storage until the next drought.

    If it would just rain, maybe we'll be ready next time the tropical storms stay away.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 11:23 PM  

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