City's era of cheap, abundant water 'over'

*BY WILLIAM F. WEST : The Herald-Sun
bwest@heraldsun.com <mailto:bwest@heraldsun.com>
Feb 18, 2008 *

DURHAM -- "We'll get through it, but the era of cheap and abundant water is over."

That was the assessment Sunday of expert Bill Holman in the aftermath of last year's drought and its effect on Durham's water supply.

Holman is director of state policy at the Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions at Duke University. He served as secretary of the N.C. Department of Environmental and Natural Resources under then-Gov. Jim Hunt.

Holman said he believes Durham needs to embrace year-round water conservation in addition to looking at restructuring the water billing system.

His presentation was part of a three-person, roughly hourlong panel discussion about Durham's water crisis.

City Councilman Eugene Brown hosted the gathering at First Presbyterian Church, 305 E. Main St.

Brown was armed with a 5-gallon bucket to show that Durham's water rates are among the lowest in the Southeast.

"This is one penny, one penny," Brown said of what is charged for such an amount. "That is too cheap."

The other panelists were Ken Reckhow, a professor of water resources at Duke University, and Cat Warren, an associate professor of English at N.C. State University.

Warren has written several articles about the water shortage, including the Jan. 30 cover piece for the Independent Weekly newspaper.

On Sunday she told the audience, "I really think that is one of those defining crises for this city and for North Carolina" and added, "I am scared."

"To me, this is like the opposite of Katrina, but I think it could have as devastating an effect," she said, a reference to the 2005 hurricane.

Warren urged North Carolina's municipalities and state government to take immediate action on the water supply issue, saying, "I think that complacency at this point is not going to get the job done."

Durham has reduced water consumption somewhere between 9 to 12 percent compared to this time last year, Warren said.

"And that's just not good enough," she said.

Reckhow said some fixes could be made quickly, beginning with the Durham city Web site.

"It's based on the governor's guidance that water utilities, communities that provide water, should look at the use in September of '07 and then compare it to the current use, which suggests that we've had a 40 percent reduction in use," Reckhow said.

"Well, if you go to non-drought years and compare September to January, you'll probably see close to a 30 percent reduction," Reckhow said. "So what this is doing is it's giving a false impression that we have been remarkably successful, whereas Cat correctly suggests that we're closer to 10 percent reduction."

Reckhow said the city even provides contradictory instructions about conservation on its Web site.

One page says residents cannot water their lawns while another page states "you're allowed to water your lawn 1 inch a week," Reckhow said.

Brown agreed that the city's Web site needs to be updated. The councilman said he met with the city manager Friday to discuss the contradictions.

/© 2008 by The Durham Herald Company. All rights reserved./