Although the possibility of stage-two water restrictions for Raleigh may be more than 30 days away, Facilities Operations at the University is already close to complying with the tighter rules for water conservation.
In mid-December, the city council gave City Manager J. Russell Allen the ability to enforce stage-two restrictions if Raleigh’s water supply in Falls Lake fell below 90 days. As of today, there are 118 days of water remaining in the lake.
But effective Oct. 22, the University implemented its own stage-two water restrictions, which according to Assistant Vice Chancellor for Facilities Operations Jack Colby meets seven out of 10 of Raleigh’s stage-two stipulations.
“We have a much more aggressive policy,” Colby said.
During the August-through-October billing period, Colby said the University community reduced its water consumption by 29 percent compared to the same time last year.
“We’re pretty pleased with the dramatic reductions we’re seeing,” Colby said.
The long billing periods and their accompanying six-week time lag can make it hard for the division to monitor water consumption closely, according to Wade Fulghum, energy conservation coordinator with the Office of Energy Management. That’s why Facilities began daily monitoring of water meters in late August, charting the data on a site anyone can access over the Internet.
” In the past, we didn’t read meters everyday,” said Fulghum, who created the data program. “We wanted to be upfront and proactive about the way we collect data.”
According to this data, collected from the five main water meters that measure campus consumption, the University has saved more than 65 million gallons since August 31. That’s more than half a million gallons a day.
That also means big savings for the campus, which as one of Raleigh’s largest consumers of water, uses 400 million gallons of water annually. Colby said the University has projected to spend $1.4 million on water and sewer bills for the 2007-08 fiscal year.
But that bill may be a bit higher if the severity of the drought continues.
The Raleigh City Council voted Tuesday to postpone a decision to raise water consumption rates by 50 percent. The measure, introduced by Mayor Charles Meeker, would have increased normal water consumers’ annual bills from about $357 to about $535, according to a Raleigh public utilities press release.
Colby said the move could cause some problems.
“We have not budgeted for it,” Colby said, pointing out that any rate increase would either cause a budget deficit or reduce any minor surplus Facilities may have accumulated.
But because Meeker’s rate increase wouldn’t be effective until May 1, Colby said the increased prices would only fall on a few billing periods before the end of the fiscal year and the impact on the budget wouldn’t be too great.
A bit of wet weather at the end of December did help the drought situation somewhat, according to State Climatologist Ryan Boyles. He said the Raleigh-Durham Airport registered 4.45 inches during the two storms. That brought the month’s rainfall 1.41 inches above average, the first above-normal month since late spring. The back-to-back storms also meant that much of the precipitation ran off into the lake.
But Boyles said the drought-ravaged areas of North Carolina should be prepared for the long haul, despite the stint of rain.
“We expect it will more than likely be dry for another two to six months,” he said. “This has been a long-term drought. It took months to get in and it will take months to get out.”
To alleviate the drought, Raleigh would need 15 to 20 inches in the next three months.
“That would be five inches a month,” Boyles said.
Boyles said the recent streak of warm weather isn’t helping things much, since higher temperatures increase lake evaporation. He pointed out however, that this week’s temperatures haven’t made much of an impact.
He said the rain forecasted for this week won’t do much good either, “but every drop counts at this point.”