After a “State of the Water Supply†meeting last week at Chapel Hill Town Hall, members of the Orange Water and Sewer Authority’s board of directors heard a series of sharply worded comments about proposed changes to water-restriction rules.
Owners and managers of local nurseries and landscapers said the rules would adversely affect local plant growers and sellers and may force some of them to shut down.
The board took comment on a series of changes contemplated for more serious stages of water restriction.
OWASA’s service area is now under stage two water restrictions, which prohibit certain types of irrigation and limit the amount of water that can be used for irrigation each week.
Green industry representatives said one tighter restriction being looked at allowing watering only by hand would be inefficient and unnecessarily hard on workers who could do a better job with a hose.
The board took no action on the proposal, and several board members indicated they would likely not support the changes as written and did not feel it was right to change the restrictions while they were in effect.
OWASA spokesman Greg Feller said that based on the discussions, the board is not likely to take up the proposed changes again but will conduct a thorough review of its drought restrictions sometime after the current drought ends.
As of Wednesday, Jan. 30, University Lake, Cane Creek Reservoir and the Quarry Reservoir were at 39.5 percent capacity. The utility estimates that’s enough for roughly 193 days. Rainfall recorded at the Jones Ferry Road Water Treatment Plant was 1.27 inches. Average January rainfall at the plant is 4.24 inches.
—Staff Reports