"Severe" Drought

[Gard]

Army Corps. of Engineers cut the water released from Falls Lake by 50% as of 3pm Monday:

http://www.newsobserver.com/weather/drough...ory/980218.html

[miamiblue]

Just found this interesting information on the City of Raleigh Website:

Map Shows What Neighborhoods Are Conserving Water

Curious as to how well (or poorly) your neighborhood is doing in the all-important campaign to conserve as much water as possible in the midst of this historic drought? You can get a good assessment by taking a look at a couple of maps the City of Raleigh Geographic Information Systems' (GIS) staff created.

[Jones_]

Growth needs to be added to this to clarify.....most of the increases appear to be where simply more people have moved in. Downtown, east of downtown, centennial campus has added buildings......per capita use per census block for residential meters would be the most useful bit of data I can think of...

[dmccall]

Those maps are so vague, they don't really tell us much. For instance two of the areas that are red are the south side of Six Forks Road from the Kroger all the way to Atlantic. Huh???

[Spatula]

Falls Lake appears to be recovering. It's up to 248 feet now. Needs to be a lot higher, but up is a good trend.

[swimmer8866]

Falls Lake appears to be recovering. It's up to 248 feet now. Needs to be a lot higher, but up is a good trend.

[Jones_]

Every vertical foot is a alot more volume than the one below it, especially in the piedmont such as we are.

[RaleighRob]

Those who know me, know I rarely have anything good to say about Cary... ( )

But here's where I will give credit where it's due: http://wral.com/news/local/story/2586461/

Some very interesting water conservation incentives. I especially like the new toilet rebates and the push for drought-resistant landscaping.

Now...the question is, is Raleigh, Durham and Chapel Hill gonna let Cary pass them as being more progressive on this issue? I certainly hope not!

[AndrewJS]

Those who know me, know I rarely have anything good to say about Cary... ( laugh.gif )

But here's where I will give credit where it's due: http://wral.com/news/local/story/2586461/

[swimmer8866]

It is pretty interesting how with just slightly below average rainfall this winter falls lake has gone up to 3/4 full. Only 1.6 feet below normal. I guess not watering lawns plays a major waste to our water situation.

[Raleighmark]

People rarely water their lawns during the winter,so I don't think that played a major role in refilling the lakes. I think most people are still conscientious about water consumption, which helps. The Corps has slowed the release from Falls Lake to a bear minimum, which helps. Does anyone know if they are still transferring large amounts from Lake Benson to the Neuse River in order to cut back the release from Falls Lake even further? During the previous storms, the rather small Falls Lake watershed was hit with several lines of thunderstorms that formed and reformed in just the right place. We have been rather fortunate. The Lake level was at 249.61 at 9:00 this morning. Normal top of pool is 251.5

[swimmer8866]

People rarely water their lawns during the winter,so I don't think that played a major role in refilling the lakes. I think most people are still conscientious about water consumption, which helps. The Corps has slowed the release from Falls Lake to a bear minimum, which helps. Does anyone know if they are still transferring large amounts from Lake Benson to the Neuse River in order to cut back the release from Falls Lake even further? During the previous storms, the rather small Falls Lake watershed was hit with several lines of thunderstorms that formed and reformed in just the right place. We have been rather fortunate. The Lake level was at 249.61 at 9:00 this morning. Normal top of pool is 251.5

[dmccall]

We went into August with a full pool, according to the mayor. There was no way to know that August was going to be such an outlier. I'm not for setting policy based on long-tail behaviors - this is why I'm so interested in the disposer ban (interesting that the subject has arisen on every local board except this one).

I think this is a case of hindsight being 20/20. If Meeker knew, for instance, that this spring will be the wettest in 6 years and there will be significant flooding, should we go ahead and lift all restrictions now?

[swimmer8866]

We went into August with a full pool, according to the mayor. There was no way to know that August was going to be such an outlier. I'm not for setting policy based on long-tail behaviors - this is why I'm so interested in the disposer ban (interesting that the subject has arisen on every local board except this one).

I think this is a case of hindsight being 20/20. If Meeker knew, for instance, that this spring will be the wettest in 6 years and there will be significant flooding, should we go ahead and lift all restrictions now?

[Jones_]

I wouldn't say there is any cronyism in the Meeker administration.....

Dana, I know you pretty much question the severity of water use restrictions, whereas swimmer here tends to want to go draconian. Even electricity can run short in NC...in the summer office buildings are asked to turn off lights to avoid brownouts. Water scales obviously work in weeks and months making it much trickier to deal with. I will use transportation as an analagy....mass transit in its various forms are separate structures or utilities that effect the status-quo road network by relieving pressure on the road network. Potable water sources, treatment and distribution systems have been asked to provide for non-essential non-potable uses as a convenience for many years simply because it could. Now though, with in your face proof that our lake level can drop really really fast with just a wobble in the normal rain fall and fairly normal temperatures, its time to separate the essential uses from the non-essential. What belongs in which category is debatable but just putting yard watering in the non-essential category would be enough to allow all other uses to go unimpeded until new sources are put online....car washing, power washing, greenhouses, vegetable gardens can all be business as usual if the 30 MGD grass demands in the summer must come from elsewhere

[dmccall]

I wouldn't say there is any cronyism in the Meeker administration.....

[Gard]

I stand somewhere in the middle on it all. I strongly support some year-round restrictions and on other things, I support easing them when the water levels return to normal.

1. I would like to see building codes revised to REQUIRE water-efficient devices. Such devices should not be optional, but mandatory.

2. A ban on those auto flush toilets that flush from someone merely walking by should be banned as well. For faucets, businesses should be require to use such devices as the faucets that turn on when you place your hands under them and turn back off after so many seconds.

3. Irrigation codes should also be tightened drastically to ensure only enough water to keep grass alive is used.

4. ALL car washes should be required to be certified by the city, like the ones that are under current restrictions.

5. HOAs need to be banned from banning rain barrels and other water-capturing devices. Reading the City Council Minutes, there have apparently been people complaining to City Council that their HOA won't let them have them.

6. Make getting new water sources online the #1 priority.

7. Recapturing water from flushing/testing water lines should be a permanent requirement.

8. Encourage the use of drought-resistant grass/plants.

[swimmer8866]

The fact that a car wash can use upwards of 55 gallons per car is flat out BS! Meeker loses all credibity with that move. I can wash my car at home and use less than 2 gallons of water!

[Jones_]

Meeker didn't engineer the car washes around town. Its very difficult in many regards to take the core system(water delivery) in a business model(car washing) and force people to replace it. Tiered pricing might inject a financial incentive into that business model and you'd get some changes out of that.

[Spatula]

Not watering lawns, and releasing much less water from the lake into the Neuse.

[swimmer8866]

This forecast should have Meeker and the rest of the clan concerned.

..AN EARLY TASTE OF SPRING ON THE WAY THIS PERIOD...

THE GFS AND GFS ENSEMBLE MEAN CONTINUED FAVORED IN THE LATE WEEK AND

NEXT WEEKEND FORECAST. IT APPEARS LIKELY THAT THIS WILL BE A WARM

DRY PERIOD FOR OUR REGION. THE MID AND UPPER LEVEL FLOW PATTERN

ACROSS NORTH AMERICA IS EXPECTED TO FEATURE A STORM TRACK ACROSS THE

NORTHERN TIER OF THE U.S. WHICH WILL BE DISPLACED WELL NORTH OF LATE

MARCH CLIMATOLOGY. THE SOUTHERN U.S. SHOULD BE WELL SOUTH OF THIS

STORM TRACK... WITH A FAST ZONAL FLOW ALOFT. THIS DOES NOT BODE WELL

FOR ANY SIGNIFICANT RAINFALL.

AT THE SURFACE... A WARM FRONT SHOULD BE WELL NORTH OF NC BEGINNING

THURSDAY... WITH BERMUDA HIGH PRESSURE ESTABLISHED. THIS WILL BRING

A WARM WSW FLOW ACROSS THE STATE WITH WELL ABOVE NORMAL TEMPS. WE

WILL BUMP UP HIGHS INTO THE LOWER TO MID 70S THURSDAY.

SOME RIDGING WILL BUILD ALOFT FRIDAY INTO SATURDAY OVER THE SE

STATES... ALLOWING THE SURFACE RIDGE IN THE WESTERN ATLANTIC TO

REMAIN IN CONTROL INTO SATURDAY. THIS WILL BRING A CONTINUATION OF

WARM DRY WEATHER. BASED ON THE CURRENT PATTERN... HIGHS SHOULD SOAR

INTO THE MID TO UPPER 70S FRIDAY AND SATURDAY WITH THE DEEP SW-W

FLOW. HIGHS COULD EASILY REACH THE LOWER 80S OVER THE SANDHILLS IF

THE SKIES REMAIN MOSTLY SUNNY. LOWS 48-55.

FINALLY... AFTER A FAST MOVING LOW PRESSURE TRACKS TO OUR NORTH

(ASSOCIATED WITH THE MAIN STORM TRACK WELL TO OUR NORTH)... A DRY

COLD FRONT SHOULD PUSH INTO THE STATE FROM THE NORTH LATE SATURDAY

OR SATURDAY NIGHT. THIS WOULD BRING A COOLER NE FLOW SUNDAY. HIGHS

WOULD BACK OF 10 DEGREES OR SO IF THIS VERIFIES. -BADGETT

This is a pattern of very dry early spring weather and well above normal temps!!

If he read these forecasts in late July and early august he would have known the excessive heat was on the way!

[dmccall]

This forecast should have Meeker and the rest of the clan concerned.

..AN EARLY TASTE OF SPRING ON THE WAY THIS PERIOD...

THE GFS AND GFS ENSEMBLE MEAN CONTINUED FAVORED IN THE LATE WEEK AND

NEXT WEEKEND FORECAST. IT APPEARS LIKELY THAT THIS WILL BE A WARM

DRY PERIOD FOR OUR REGION. THE MID AND UPPER LEVEL FLOW PATTERN

[JeffC]

This was supposed to be the most active hurricane season on record. I take that prediction about as seriously as Dione Warwick's.

[DB78]

I stand somewhere in the middle on it all. I strongly support some year-round restrictions and on other things, I support easing them when the water levels return to normal.

1. I would like to see building codes revised to REQUIRE water-efficient devices. Such devices should not be optional, but mandatory.

2. A ban on those auto flush toilets that flush from someone merely walking by should be banned as well. For faucets, businesses should be require to use such devices as the faucets that turn on when you place your hands under them and turn back off after so many seconds.

[swimmer8866]

This was supposed to be the most active hurricane season on record. I take that prediction about as seriously as Dione Warwick's.