In a recent interview with the Observer’s editorial board, Doug Bean, the director of Charlotte-Mecklenburg Utilities, had this to say about water use, and conservation:
"I do not believe we will ever go back to our old habits (before the drought). I think this experience has brought about a change in thinking for many people."
He was talking about the exceptional heat and drought last year that forced tough water restrictions on Charlotte (and most of the Catawba River Valley, too.) Even with recent above-normal rains, the area remains more than a foot below normal precipitation since January 2007.
Is Bean dreaming? Or is he dead-on? Can one year of conservation persuade an affluent community to adopt a new way of thinking about water? Will a big scare and higher prices curtail waste, or will we just pay more and continue to irrigate, flush and spray at will?
Already the utility has eased restrictions on lawn watering in the face of a budget shortfall due in part to conservation. So has Raleigh, where the water crunch was even worse than in Charlotte before rains helped out and refilled reservoirs serving the capital.?
What do you think? Have we learned a hard lesson and become conservers? Will our elected leadership make different policy choices about water from now on? Or will all those good intentions evaporate quicker than raindrops on a 100-degree day?
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9 comments:
Why should I, a Charlotte native who has lived in this region her entire life, who is married and has no children, conserve because of the bad or nonexistent planning of city leaders? It is not my fault that they encouraged everyone to move here. We never use more than 2,000 gallons a month, even with car washing and lawn watering. They can stick their conservation request! I will never, EVER conserve, and with the water rate hike fiasco, I suspect no one else will ever conserve again either.
Yeah, this whole rate increase thing really did a great job of undermining whatever little trust there might have been in our leadership.
I dislike the connotation of normal water usage being "wasteful". Water put into the ground to nurture grass is not wasted. Neither is water used to wash a car. Water isn't destroyed when it is used.
The fact is that we all sacrificed to help overcome mismanagement by elected and appointed officials, who allowed nearly unrestricted building and growth for years without a thought to the increased load on our local water supplies.
Water is not a never-ending commodity, it is a gift. I learned water conservation many years ago in another state. Why should you care? Because you are not the only person on this planet. This is not a city/state situation, this is a planet problem. Charlotte did not enter into or go through a drought because of waste, it is because of global changes. Wake up and stop being so selfish. Point fingers all you want, but it won't help the situation. Conserve where you can whenever you can. That's all any of us can do.
You would think with all the wacko conservatives around here, that conserving wouldn't be so hard!
Oh, I am sorry Charlotte native, I didn't know other people were allowed to live here unless you are actually from here. Ugh - get over yourself.
Droughts come and go in many places. This region has had droughts waaaaay before the "global changes" mentioned here.
I travel quite a bit and water usage is not an issue in most cities. It is plentiful so what is Charlotte's problem? Well I think we all know the answer to that. Yes there was a drought last year and we conserved only to be screwed by mismanagement. We have received quite a bit of rain recently and lake levels are returning to normal but all we hear is we are 17 inches below average. WE DO NOT NEED TO 17 inches of rain!! Also, for some reason it never rains at Charlotte Douglass airport. I took a flight out of CLT recently and it was raining cats and dogs for hours and flights were delayed. When I returned a few days later the Charlotte Observer said we had .07 inches of rain. Are you kidding me? What kind of rain gauge are they using out there??????? What a joke.
Yea, everyone has learned to conserve water. When will the water company start to conserve? What did they do to cut there budget? We see what happens when we do our part, they impose a rate hike that is far larger than fair. I didn't read anywhere that if and when the water levels get back to normal, so would our bills. It's just like the scam product company's use, when there is a problem, jack up the price by 100%, then when the problem has passed, drop it a few % so people might think they're adjusting back. We're not all morons, all we ask is to be treated fairly and for the officials we elect to look out for us just a little instead of always siding with big business. Is that too much to ask?
Rick in Charlotte
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