Agenda - 07-25-1988 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Orange Water and Sewer Authority 400 Jones Ferry Road OWASA J P.O. Box 366 Carrboro, NC 27510 (919) 968-4421 ORANGE WATER AND SEWER AUTI-DR 1 TY NEWS RELEASE VOLUNTARY WATER CONSERVATION MEASURES REQUESTED BY OWASA July 25, 1988 Orange Water and Sewer Authority (OWASA) has evaluated the current and projected water supply situation and has determined that CWASA customers should take voluntary measures to reduce the demand on local water supplies. Everett Billingsley, Executive Director, has written to the mayors of Chapel Hill and Carrboro, the Chairman of the Orange County Board of Commissioners and the Chairman of the Durham County Board of Commissioners asking that the ALERT phase of the five—stage water conservation plan be imposed. The conditions of the first phase of the ordinances carry no civil penalties, but do request that customers implement several conservation practices on a voluntary basis. These include: o Taking four minute showers Instead of longer showers or full tub baths. o Limiting flushing of toilets to only when needed. o Not running faucets while brushing teeth, shaving or rinsing dishes, etc. o Operating clothes washers and dish washers only with full loads. o Limiting lawn and garden watering to the extent possible. o Temporarily delaying new landscape work. o Limiting or stopping washing of cars, vehicles, etc. o Not washing down outside areas such as driveways, patios, sidewalks, etc. o Using disposable dishes. Rainfall in the Chapel Hill—Carrboro area has been minimal during the last month and is more than 9 inches below normal for the year—to—date. Consequently, the natural inflow of water into local supply sources has been very limited, while at the same time water withdrawal rates are at record levels for this time of year. Water demands for the past several months have been 10% to 15% above demand levels for the same period last year. Average daily water demand during July, 1988 has been above 8 million gallons per day— more than 20% greater than July, 1987 demands. The extended hot and dry weather conditions and record high levels of water usage for this time of year have resulted in a steady drawdown of the community' s existing water supply sources. University Lake, the primary source of water, is almost 28 inches below full . Ordinances of the Towns and Orange and Durham County allow Stage I voluntary conservation measures to be requested when University Lake drops to 24 inches below full . To supplement the water available in University Lake, the Authority has been pumping 2 million gallons of water each day from the Cane Creek Temporary Water Supply Impoundment. An additional 2 million gallons per day is being pumped from the Stone Quarry Reservoir. The Stone Quarry Reservoir and Cane Creek Temporary Impoundment are nearly 26 and 5 feet below full , respectively. The quantity of water available in local supply sources is between 65% and 70% of total storage capacity. An Equal Opportunity Employer