UNC conservation efforts bolster confidence in local water supply
By Kirk Ross
Staff Writer
If you drive by the headquarters of the Orange Water and Sewer Authority you may see the sign in front, which as of Wednesday noted that reservoirs are at 77.3 percent of capacity.
OWASA’s reservoirs at Cane Creek and University Lake have been steadily dropping since mid-August, as rainfall abated and the central Piedmont returned to drought conditions.
Officially, Orange County is in a widening belt of counties declared by the N.C. Drought Management Advisory Council as being in a “moderate drought.†But OWASA officials say that while they take any such hydrological information seriously, this year’s drought comes with far less dread.
“We’re in good shape,†Ed Holland, OWASA’s planning director, said in a recent interview. “We’re well above any measure of risk.â€
In fact, he said, even though the area is in an official drought, he does not see the utility having to return to stricter conservation standards for at least the next year.
Holland attributes the positive outlook in part to year-round conservation efforts and the lasting effects of water-saving upgrades and changes in water-use habits by residential and business customers, as well as a new tiered-rate system that makes water much more expensive past certain thresholds.
But the key reason the utility is more comfortable heading into this drought is an impressive drop in water use by the University of North Carolina.
“University consumption is down across the board,†Holland said. UNC is using about the same amount of water it used 10 years ago, he said.
Ray DuBose, UNC’s director of Energy Services, said even though he’s been focused on the campus-wide efforts aimed at saving water, the numbers are still pretty jaw dropping, especially considering the school’s rapid growth over the past decade.
DuBose said in the 2003 fiscal year, the university was roughly 13.5 million square feet of space and used 667 million gallons of water.
Between then and now the university added about 4 million square feet of space, yet water use dropped by 9 percent. In the fiscal year that ended on June 30 of this year, the school’s total square footage was 17.5 million square feet and water use was down to 631 million gallons.
What made the difference?
The drought of 2001-02, in which water supplies dwindled to record low levels, was an eye-opener, DuBose said.
“That was the first drought since Cane Creek was constructed,†he said. Yet despite a new reservoir, the university and its hospitals and clinics were faced with a crisis, including the prospect of a partial shutdown.
“We simply cannot operate without water,†DuBose said. In the summer of 2002, the campus started emergency renovations to install low-flow showerheads, waterless urinals and the development of closed-loop systems for cooling in research labs. The school’s massive building program, financed by the state’s Higher Education Bonds, also included retrofitting older buildings and incorporating more efficient water systems in new buildings. Now everything from planting more drought-resistant native plants to using rainwater to flush toilets is standard procedure.
Dubose said that while the conservation numbers are impressive, they’re likely to see even more improvement. In a project planned during the 2002 drought and hastened by last years drought, the university and OWASA completed work this spring on a new water line that can send up to 600,000 gallons per day of recycled water from OWASA’s Mason Farm treatment plant to UNC’s chiller system.
Figures for this June alone show a savings of 18 million gallons from the reclaim system.
DuBose said he doubts he’ll ever stop keeping an eye on the weather and the water supply, but at least he can do so with a lot more confidence.
“We’re pretty proud of what we’ve been able to accomplish,†he said.
Good job, UNC. Duke did the same thing last year.