Drought Response
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Emergency powers
One shortcoming of the N.C. water allocation system highlighted by the exceptional drought of 2007-08 is the "all or nothing" nature of the emergency powers granted to the administration by legislation passed after the drought of the 1950s. In March 2008, the Governor called for legislation to extend these powers into more proactive, less extreme circumstances, and this legislation (H.2499) was enacted as S.L. 2008-143.
Drought response stages
Another question raised by the 2007-'08 drought response is whether the locally-driven system of drought response stages makes sense. Other than in the Catawba Basin, which has a low-inflow protocol created by a group of water managers working on FERC relicensing, the rest of the state has largely-uncoordinated local water shortage response plans. This means that water users in the urbanized areas outside the Catawba basin get many different, sometimes mixed messages about water use restrictions and drought status. Given that water in the urbanized areas (and some rural areas) of the state moves from system to system almost like electricity in the electricity grid, does this uncoordinated drought response planning make sense?
Documenting drought response
How did the system respond to the drought of 2000-2002, and then to the drought of 2007-? This part of the report will document the problems posed by those droughts, and then report on how the N.C. water allocation system responded.
Two water systems, Siler City and Rocky Mount,
The permitting of a DOT rock quarry as an emergency source of water for the City of Monroe.
● An emergency water line for Nash County Water System
● Installation of water mains and valves along U.S. Highway 301 to interconnect the Town of Rowland (N.C.) and Trico Water Company (S.C.) water systems.
● Seven projects in Goldsboro/Wayne County to interconnect the Goldsboro water system to water lines serving various Wayne County water systems or sanitary districts.
● Permitting of the Nello Teer Quarry in Durham as an emergency water supply for the Durham water system.
Both the N.C. Rural Economic Development Center and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources gave priority to drought response projects in allocating grant and loan funds. Additional drought response or drought mitigation projects in progress include: Boone/Blowing Rock/ Appalachian State University interconnections; a Mars Hill/Weaverville interconnection; and regional interconnections between Hendersonville, Saluda, Tryon and Columbus. (All of these water systems were identified in 2007-2008 as being highly vulnerable to drought.) In 2007-2008, the state committed a total of $16,031,000.00 in funding for drought-related inconnection or emergency water supply projects ($6,631,000 in grants from the N.C. Rural Economic Development Center and $9,400,000.00 in low interest loans from the N.C. Drinking Water Revolving Loan Fund). Additional funding requests are pending.
The Department of Environment and Natural Resources provided technical assistance on water conservation and efficiency
to approximately 70 facilities. The Department also set aside $500,000 to assist 22 water systems with water audits and leak investigations; those water audits are underway. The 2008-2009 state budget included a $600,000.00 drought reserve fund to be continue assistance with water audits; provide additional seed money for drought response projects; and fund water conservation education materials.
Other water utilities made no changes. Why the difference? As a system, what was learned, and what does this tell us about the system's resilience?
Based on this review of recent history, the study will go on to consider policies the General Assembly and local systems should consider to respond to current and future droughts. Here is a page where we collect questions that will frame the water allocation study's 2008 report to the Environmental Review Commission and a page where we began assembling a list of lessons learned from the 2007-08 drought.
Agricultural Drought Recovery Program
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Municipal drought response and Lessons Learned
'In the drought of 2001/2002, there were 10 water supply systems in crisis in North Carolina, earning them a position on the Tier 1 list. Only one of those same systems, Yadkinville, remains on the Tier 1 list as of July 14, 2008, but eight of the original ten are classified as Tier 2, and Greensboro is listed as a Tier 3.
Many more systems have been added to the tier list this time around that were not included in 2002, including the four Tier 1 communities of Valdese, Lenoir, Robbinsville,and Mars Hill. [No water system listed on any tier in 2002 was able to get off of the list altogether, but there were three county systems listed as Tier 3 who are now listed as Tier 0.]
To gain a better understanding of the issues facing public water supply systems, we selected six municipalities, five from the list and one un-listed system for comparison. We met with each during June of 2008 to hear their water supply and drought stories in detail. The following six sketches provide a sense of the range of issues and types of responses to the drought, and attempt to gauge what progress has been made since the drought of 2001-2002.
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Blowing Rock
Blowing Rock’s water supply issues began before the droughts of the 21st Century, but drought may have spurred the realization that the town is plagued with inadequate supply, even during years with normal precipitation. Perched at the headwaters of the Yadkin, Catawba, and New River basins, Blowing Rock relies on streamflows from Flat Top Branch to fill its reservoir. But supply is 200,000 million gallons a day short of current demand, not to mention future growth.
The most cost effective solution to the long-term problem is to store more water in the existing reservoir by raising the dam, but negotiations fizzled with the National Park Service, who owns the land adjacent to the Blue Ridge Parkway. So Blowing Rock analyzed options further afield, and turned to its neighbors to the North. The relationship between Blowing Rock, Boone, and Appalachian State University has been rocky in the past, but prolonged attempts at regional planning have paid off, and yielded a plan to interconnectthe three separate water systems – facilitated and expedited by DENR. When built, this pipeline will be able to supply emergency water as needed in the short-term, and will eventually transfer half-a-million gallons a day from Boone’s anticipated new water supply intake on the South Fork of the New River. Because of high per capita income in Blowing Rock, they do not qualify for many grants. Funding for the interconnections comes from Watauga County, the Appalachian Regional Commission, and Blowing Rock.
In the meantime, this mountaintop town copes with drought by using water from privately owned Lake Chetola, and adopting strict conservationmeasures. In addition to the usual ways of communicating water use restrictions, notices were hand delivered to residents to get their attention. The local hotel association members have received training on water conservation, and the town offered residents an opportunity to purchase rain barrels at cost. Town staff received numerous complaints from residents, who were unable to water their landscaping, and the county received many inquiries for well permits. Wells are prohibited in Blowing Rock town limits.
The town was pleased with the amount of water that their customers saved as a result of the restrictions. As a Tier 1 community, Blowing Rock received a system-wide water audit that was paid for by the state of North Carolina. In this process they located and repaired a significant water leak underneath the highway (1.3 million gallons per week), and have begun reading meters at some town facilities that were not previously tracked. These improvements have brought current demand down below previous levels, yet the town remains approximately 200,000 gallons a day short of their demand. This shortfall could be met by recycling treated wastewater. Demand could be further curbed by requiring old or inefficient fixtures to be replaced town-wide, and by adopting conservation pricing or increasing block rates.
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Boone
When Boone town manager Greg Young and utility director Rick Miller think about the drought of 2007-2008, one day stands out from the rest. On August 28th water stopped flowing over the top of their primary intake pipe in the South Fork branch of the New River.
The Town of Boone is geographically positioned in such a way that it receives regular rain even during times of drought. But because of the mountainous terrain and its location in the headwaters of the New River, water moves quickly downstream. Boone withdraws up to 3 million gallons per day (mgd) from two run-of-river intakes (back-up intake in Winklers Creek) to meet the water demands of approximately 14,000 residents. The town began to take careful note of stream levels (did not have equipment for measuring stream flows until late 2007) in May and June of 2007, following press releases from the Governor’s Office and the Drought Management Advisory Council on the deepening drought. Stream levels throughout the summer, though increasingly low, were still providing enough water for residents who were curbing their water consumption. The Town never moved from voluntary water use restrictions, which they first implemented in 2005 following a study that found Boone was quickly outgrowing its available supply. The decline in consumption can most realistically be attributed to the loss of several big customers, but residents did conserve water in response to regular drought updates from the local radio station.
The sudden drop in stream flows on August 28th occurred because upstream users, the Town of Blowing Rock, a ski resort, and a golf course, were withdrawing on that day. Blowing Rock was pulling water from Lake Chetola, its back-up supply. As a result of the near emergency, the State’s Division of Water Resources began frequent, often daily, phone conversations to check-in and provide Boone with critical support.
Boone was placed on the Tier I list by the state because it had less then 100 days of supply, has a run-of-river intake (which makes water availability less certain and more difficult to predict), and because it has no emergency interconnections. Being on the Tier I list, despite the negative media reputation, has resulted in many benefits for Boone: system-wide water audit, access to funding sources, technical support, and has enabled Boone and neighboring Appalachian State University and Blowing Rock to put water supply above political issues. As of June 2008, Boone and Blowing Rock were creating emergency interconnects with funding from the Rural Economic Development Center, Watauga County, and Blowing Rock. Additionally, Boone is going to install an interconnection with Appalachian State University, funded in part by the Rural Center.
In the short-term, Boone is revising its ordinances to expedite the implementation of mandatory water use restrictions. Additionally, it is pursuing efficiency optionssuch as allowing indoor water reuse, selling rain barrels, starting a fixture buy-back program, and expanding water conservation outreach programs. In the long-term, Boone is pursuing an additional intake on the South Fork – downstream of their current intake pump and approximately 12 miles away from Boone.
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Burlington
Burlington weathered the drought with relative ease, due in large part to actions taken following the drought of 1954 which spurred the building of Lake Cammack. In 1968 the City started planning for additional supply, and eventually built Lake Mackintosh, their third water supply reservoir fed by streams in the Haw River Basin. The foresight to develop this storage capacity in the headwaters of the Cape Fear now affords Burlington the opportunity to sell water to its neighbors, including Greensboro, Gibsonville, Elon, the village of Alamance, the town of Haw River, and the Orange-Alamance Water System. Burlington also has an interconnection with the town of Graham, for emergency use only.
In 2007, their lake levels did drop significantly, and Lake Cammack was down about 12 feet so that the shoreline was exposed. There was some public concern about running out of water, but the City maintains that they still had a lot of water and that triggers for water conservation measures are conservative. During the last drought, Burlington initiated voluntary conservation measures on Sept 18th. In the middle of October they went to mandatory Stage 1 conservation in response to the Governor Easley’s request, to heighten people’s awareness, and to be sympathetic to the systems around them. Burlington’s agreements with neighboring towns and water systems require them to observe the same level of conservation as Burlington. Although compliance with restrictions was pretty good, the City does not believe that these restrictions made much difference in the total water demand. Sales to the other municipalities make up the largest share of their demand and they did not cut back on sales to most of their municipal customers.
Burlington’s water rich location at the headwaters of the Cape Fear Basin has not enticed municipal leaders to fund additional water conservation measures. The city’s unofficial policy for years has been “use all you want, we’ll make more.” They do not currently have a good leak detection system, but heightened awareness about water during the drought helped to get funding for a water audit put into the city’s budget. Their water rates follow a declining block structure, which is leftover from their heritage as an industrial textile town, and discussions about shifting to a flat rate structure have not taken hold. Burlington charges less for water than 90 percent of all systems in North Carolina. They raised rates in the early 2000’s by about 22 percent when the textile industry declined severely, but their current water use is back up to where it was during the height of the textile industry due to population growth.
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The city of Durham sprawls across the watershed divide for the Neuseand Cape Fear River Basins and supplies a population of over 180,000 people with water, primarily from the Flat and Little Rivers, both tributaries of the Neuse. Durham's primary water supply reservoir is Lake Michie, fed mostly by the Flat River.
To ensure adequate supply during the drought, Durham installed an emergency tap into Teer Quarry, and expedited this planned expansion of their supply. They also drew water from the Eno River, and purchased finished water from Cary and OWASA. They implemented heightened voluntary and then mandatory water use restrictions in September of 2007, and enacted their highest level of restrictions (Stage 4) on December 3rd. Customer’s heeded the call for water conservation, and maintained their efforts even after restrictions were eased. Water use demand in May 2008 was 25 percent less than in May 2007.
Other drought response actions included a water audit, starting a leak detection process, and rapidly responding to leaks. A bulk reclaimed water system was added at the North Durham Water Reclamation facility in early February to provide alternative water sources for landscapers, street cleaning, sewer flushing, and other appropriate uses. Durham expects to bring a similar system online at the South Durham facility by mid-summer.
Durham has also implemented many long-term water conservation measures, including year-round voluntary water use restrictions. They made the switch to increasing water and sewer rates for residential customers in July. Staff anticipates developing a tiered rate structure for multi-family residential units next, then possibly developing tiers for industrial and institutional customers. Durham’s comprehensive public education program on tiered rates and water conservation kicked-off on June 23 with radio spots on 17 stations. They also have a toilet rebate program that will roll out in late August and are considering other appliance/device rebate programs, an incentive program for developers to increase building code standards, and incentives for moisture sensors for irrigation control. Irrigation accounts are already billed separately, and their ability to track water use will improve as they transition to a new billing system, automatic meter reading, and monthly billing.
Durham is in the process of making many improvements in its operation, and these changes mostly began before the 2007 drought. Very few were implemented in time to be effective in this drought, and Durham entered it with the lowest water rates and highest percentage of unallocated water among its Triangle neighbors. But the plans in place are positive, and will hopefully prevent future Tier 1 listings, which will be of great relief to city officials.
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Goldsboro
Goldsboro is a small city with big water supply hurdles that are exacerbated during drought years. Their primary water supply, serving approximately 40,000 people, is from run-of-river water supplies in the lower Neuse River. This makes Goldsboro dependent on upstreamcommunities, Raleigh and rapidly growing Johnston County, to leave enough raw water in the river and to discharge wastewater. During the drought, fully 35% of the Neuse flow was Raleigh wastewater, prompting Utility Director Karen Brashear to plead, “If Raleigh doesn’t flush, we don’t drink. Please don’t conserve too much upstream.”
Goldsboro has the ability to pull water from the Little River and from three interconnectionswith Wayne County’s groundwater system, but these emergency sources are not without their own problems. The Little River is also a run-of-river allocation, one that you can step across in times of drought, and the groundwaterinterconnections have technical issues with water chemistry and pressure.
Another impediment exists in low flow times, when large volumes of shifting sand on the river bottom threaten to choke Goldsboro’s primary intake structure on the Neuse. During the 2007-2008 drought, divers had to go down in the river for at least two months, and suck the sand out with a large hydraulic pump. This expense was necessary to protect the viability of the intake, and was one of several emergency expenditures the city made during the drought. They also sought a permit for and constructed an emergency suction hose with a screen to keep out the sand to be placed in the river for pumping in emergency situations. They installed seven new interconnections with the groundwater system for short-term emergency use, and also paid to temporarily reconstruct an Army Corps flood control structure in disrepair that was allowing much-needed water to bypass the town via an overflow channel.
Additional drought response actions included implementing the highest level of mandatory restrictions during the drought, locking out everyone’s irrigation meters with locks, and refunding their meter deposit back to them. They also met with local industry representatives to discuss drought emergency planning, and started water conservation education. The City has also revised their water reuse permits to allow bulk distribution of treated wastewater for a number of uses. The financial challenges to meet their existing obligations prohibit Goldsboro from pursuing other conservation practices or efficiency upgrades. They are hoping to be able to benefit from a state funded water audit, even though they were on the Tier 2 list.
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Greensboro
Greensboro sits in an advantageous position near the headwaters of the Deep and Haw Rivers in the Upper Cape Fear River Basin. The City currently draws its water from three reservoirs fed by Brush and Reedy Creeks in the Haw basin, and is pursuing additional water supplies from the Deep River via Lake Randleman for its growing citizenry of almost 240,000 people. Yet Greensboro has also been proactive about deliberately curbing demand; by restructuring rates and waging an educational campaign they have reduced single-family residential use by 24 percent. These actions allowed the city to weather the drought with relative ease, with their lakes remaining at least 50 percent full.
Greensboro’s water picture was not always so buoyant. During the mid 1990s they were at a significantly higher risk of failing to meet water demand during any given year. Allan Williams, Director of Greensboro’s Water Resources Department, keeps a picture of the 1998 drought on his office wall as a reminder of just how low lake levels can go. In 1997, the department had 80,000 customers, and set a water use record of 52 million gallons in one day. With future supplies from Randleman reservoir still a long way away, the solution was to implement a tiered ratestructure, and to price irrigationwater separately at the highest rate. The city has added 20,000 customers since then, but is using the same total amount of water. Industrial users have become much more efficient, out of necessity, because they now pay four to five times what they used to for large amounts of water.
Greensboro has recently spent about $25 million in supply side improvements, including a Haw River Transfer station that required 13 miles of new water line to access Haw River water in times of shortage. The city will also furnish $34 million to the Piedmont Triad Regional Water Authority (PTRWA) for their share of a new water treatment plant at Lake Randleman. In addition, their system has interconnections with Reidsville, Burlington, High Point, and Winston-Salem, which allow Greensboro the flexibility to buy water when needed.
These improvements, plus Greensboro’s experience in managing drought and enacting mandatory restrictions three times in the last ten years, has helped the city transition out of its previous position as the “poster child for drought” on the state’s Tier 1 list.
Department of Environment and Natural Resources Drought Response
Water System Emergencies
DENR worked with local governments, water systems and funding agencies to identify projects needed to provide back-up water supply to communities experiencing drought emergencies. Division of Water Resources and the Public Water Supply Section of the Division of Environmental Health took the lead in helping each water system identify the most practical water supply option and expedited the permitting of these projects. The NC Rural Center assisted in identifying funding options for drought response projects (both emergency projects and those designed to avert an emergency). The NC Rural Center and a number of other state and federal funding agencies have allocated grant and loan money to drought response projects on a priority basis.
- Rocky Mount: The reservoir was at approx. 50% of capacity by early August 2007 and the town instituted mandatory water conservation measures on August 10, 2007. DENR and the NC Rural Center provided funds and expedited permits to construct new connections between Rocky Mount and Wilson to provide an additional water source. The NC Rural Center provided $500,000 for the inital interconnection and another $500,000 grant in the most recent round of grant for extension of an additional water line for interconnection. The USDA-Rural Development program provided $600,000 in loan funds.
- Siler City: Went to conservation measures requiring 50% reductions in water use by early October 2007 due to low levels in the city's primary drinking water reservoir. The loss of water supply threatened two industrial facilities in Siler City that accounted for approx. half of the city's water use, but also provided more than 1500 jobs. For several weeks, the two industrial facilities trucked water from Jordan Lake to the city's reservoir under an agreement with the city. DENR helped Siler City identify the most practical and least costly way to interconnect with Sanford as a supplemental water supply. The NC Rural Center provided $500,000 to Siler City that was matched by local funds.
- DENR programs expedited environmental permits for a number of drought response projects including: permitting of a DOT rock quarry as an emergency source of water for the City of Monroe; bulk water reuse facility for the Town of Chapel Hill; an emergency water line for Nash County Water System; additional pump stations and water mains to allow Wilson County's Southeast Water District to provide emergency water supply to Rocky Mount/Nash County; Installation of water mains and valves along US Highway 301 to interconnect the Town of Rowland and Trico Water Company (SC) water systems; extension of water lines into two residential areas in Rocky Mount where private water supply wells went dry; seven projects in Goldsboro/Wayne County to interconnect the Goldsboro water system to water lines serving various Wayne County water systems or sanitary districts; permitting of the Nello Teer Quarry in Durham as an emergency water supply for the Durham water system.
Additional drought response projects in progress
DENR and the NC Rural Center continue to help communities that were identified as being very vulnerable to drought impacts in 2007-2008 (many of which also experienced significant drought impacts in 2002). In each case, DENR provided technical assistance to identify the most practical and cost-effective project for each community. The NC Rural Center convened a meeting of state and federal funding agencies to identify funding sources. Projects,tier rating, and potential funding follow:
- Bessemer City (Tier I) interconnection with Gastonia, partial funding may be available from state drought reserve funds
- Boone (Tier I) interconnection with ASU, $168K from NCRC
- Boone new intake on South Fork of the New River, primary funding expected from USDA; Intake site has been secured, public scoping meeting held, USDA funding ($19,400,000) cannot be secured until EA is complete.
-Boone interconnection with Blowing Rock (Tier I), $1.5 million from NCRC; $2.2 million low interest loan from PWSS; $300K from ARC; EIS required
- Hendersonville (Tier I), water main with temporary pump station on French Broad; $500K from NCRC, application for $2.5 million expected to PWSS; funds may be requested from Army Corps Intake; Intake area needs to be reclassified by NC DWQ.
- Lenoir (Tier I), new raw water intake and pump station; $500K from NCRC; $5.8 million low interest loan from PWSS; $300K from ARC; plans in design
- Mars Hill (Tier I) interconnection with Weaverville; $500K from NCRC; application for $600K to NC Commerce; $300K from ARC; USDA low interest loan for $600K; Mars Hill and Weaverville have passed resolutions in support of this project.
- Marshall (Tier I), 2 new wells, storage tank and line repair; NC Commerce reviewing application for $600K; $300K from ARC; low interest loan for $750K to USDA.
- Robbinsville (Tier I), 3 new wells and piping; $193K from NCRC; very vulnerable to drought in 2008.
- Regional interconnect - Hendersonville, Saluda, Tryon and Columbus (Tier I); $1.73 million from NCRC; $1.4 million low interest loan from PWSS; $300K from ARC; Columbus, Saluda, and Tryon have all passed resolutions of support
- Valdese (Tier I), Locating water lines, water audit, planning grant; $40K from NCRC; $80K from ARC
- Yadkinville (Tier I), possible interconnection with Davie County; partial funding may be available from state drought reseve funds; Yadkin County securing funding and approvals for new reservoir that would supply Yadkinville
- King (Tier II) interconnection to Winston-Salem; partial funding may be available from state drought reserve funds
Changes in federal reservoir management protocols to increase water availability
DENR's Division of Water Resources took the lead in requesting changes to the protocols for management of federal reservoirsthat serve as water supplies. DWR obtained agreement by the US Army Corps of Engineers to delay seasonal increases in the downstream releases from Falls Lake to extend the water supply available to the City of Raleigh. DWR also took the lead in seeking permission from the Corps of Engineers for Raleigh to have access to water in the sediment pool of Falls Lake.
Technical Assistance: Water Conservation and Efficiency
- DENR's Division of Pollution Prevention and Environmental Assistance (DPPEA) staff conducted water conservation audits at major water users and critically impacted facilities on request; technical assistance has been provided to approximately 70 facilities and organizations since Sept. 2007
- 22 water systems vulnerable to drought requested help in conducting water audits to identify water losses in their systems; DWR contracted with five engineering firms; the results are being reported to the communities and to DWR; studies began in April for the first 5 systems at a cost of $70,000 and the remaining systems will receive audits as the first audits are completed. DENR is funding the total estimated cost for all 22 audits, approx. $500,000.
- DENR has provided education and technical assistance to help Tier I and II systems in developing water shortage response plans
- DENR developed an expedited permitting process to respond to the high level of interest from both municipalities and industries in using reclaimed water for non-potable water uses.
Public Education
- DENR and the NC Department of Crime Control and Public Safety created a new water conservation web site
- DENR funded development of two public service announcements about drought response (approx. $100,000) for television stations across the State
- DENR staff developed fact sheets on water conservation measures
