Samira Khoury said she knows there is a drought in North Carolina. She said she knows residents aren’t supposed to water their lawns as much as they usually would.

She said she doesn’t know what else she can do.

“I don’t have a lawn to water right now,” Khoury, a freshman in business management, said. “But if there’s anything I could do, I’d do it.”

According to Ed Buchan, a water conservation specialist for the City of Raleigh, the drought is the worst in recorded history. Stage One water restrictions were implemented on Aug. 28, and last week the city announced, if it doesn’t rain this fall, the water supply will run out by Jan. 7.

N.C. State gets its water from the city. Because of its many accounts, Buchan said, the University is the city’s largest customer — consuming, on average, 1.3 million gallons a day.

In addition to the restrictions enforced by the city, the University has responded to a request from Gov. Mike Easley for state agencies to reduce water consumption by 20 percent, Wade Fulghum, energy conservation coordinator, said.

Buchan met with the Conservation Awareness Team twice, once in May and again two weeks ago, to discuss the way the University can reduce its impact.

The team is made up of representatives from all major water consumers on campus, such as the housing, utilities and athletics departments. Each member offers ideas and strategies for conserving water from the standpoint of his or her part of campus.

“They’ve been very proactive — contacting us and asking what they need to do,” Buchan said. “They’ve come up with a plan, and they haven’t been required to. But they will be.”

According to Fulghum, CAT has been working on the plan for years. The team has developed its own responses to Stage One and Stage Two water restrictions.

Fulghum said the water level at Falls Lake determines which stage the city mandates.

“If it drops to 70 percent, we’re in Stage One, which is where we are now,” Fulghum said. “Stage Two begins at 50 percent.”

Part of CAT’s efforts to conserve water includes education and awareness, Fulghum said. The team developed what Marie Ministero, assistant director of maintenance and renovations at Talley Student Center, called a synopsis of ways students can save water.

Fliers declaring “Mr. Wuf Says: You need to save water!” outline 10 conservation methods students can follow to make their own contributions to the effort. These tips, Ministero said, are supposed to be posted in all residence halls.

“It’s just a matter of keeping that conservation awareness fresh in your minds,” Ministero said. “I don’t think anybody wants to waste natural resources.”

In Talley, all the automatic toilets have been fixed, so they only flush once, Ministero said. There is no more window washing, and only the minimum, necessary power washing is allowed on the loading dock. The fountain outside Talley is empty.

NCSU has implemented the ideas CAT has developed, Fulghum said, though he receives e-mails from professors and students asking about the irrigation systems. He said people may see a sprinkler going off in the middle of the day and think the University is wasting water.

“There are 62 systems across campus, and they’re semi-automated to fully-automated weather-based, high-tech systems,” Fulghum said. “A sprinkler head will get knocked over by a car or something, and it would be flowing out water if it were left on, so irrigation is required to do preventative maintenance on its systems. Preventative maintenance is actually saving water.

“If they’re working the way they’re supposed to, then when it is time to water, which is once a week now, they work properly, and we don’t put more water on the ground than we need to.”

Buchan said the drip irrigation system used by the University is so effective it doesn’t need to be regulated.

The watering of athletic fields is not regulated at all due to safety reasons, Buchan said. However, if the lack of rain persists, he predicts North Carolina may go into Stage Two water restrictions in October. If Stage Two is implemented, all water use beyond what is absolutely necessary will be banned completely.

“We’re looking for a tropical event to come through,” Buchan said. “We want something like that to happen.”

While NCSU is doing all it can to help save water, Fulghum said, conservation begins at the personal level. He said students can do their part by making small changes in their daily lives.

“Every time you see water, you should think of conserving it,” Ministero said. “I think everybody understands we’re in a crisis here. It’s just a constant thing you have to think of. If everybody could just save a little bit in a day’s time, that would be a remarkable conservation measure.”