The General Assembly is currently debating the adoption of new drought rules for water systems across the state. A bill that cleared a House committee earlier this week gives the state the power to order water restrictions but leaves the
specifics -- who must conserve and how much -- to individual
water systems.
One issue that could concern Raleigh, Cary and other water systems is linking when a system has to put in restrictions to the state's drought monitor. For example, the Triangle could be in a severe level of drought, but reservoirs such as Jordan Lake and Falls Lake could be full or close to full. This scenario is likely to be faced by Cary many times in the future, as Jordan Lake is much less prone to droughts than Falls Lake. Keep in mind that water systems need to be able to sell water to make their budgetary goals, and having fixed trigger points set by the state or someone else could wreak havoc on some system's budgets.
What level of state control is appropriate? It would seem that everyone benefits from water systems being extremely well prepared to handle the next drought. But, as this recent drought showed, municipalities often don't know how well their drought plan work until it is put in place and tested. Raleigh ended up tweaking its conservation rules repeatedly between August of last year and May. Should systems continue to have the flexibility to change their rules as conditions change? There's also the question of whether the state has the time or resources to be knowledgeable about every water system in the state.
