Cary & Morrisville Declare Mandatory Odd/Even Water Conservation for All Customers
NEWS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE June 4, 1999
CARY & MORRISVILLE DECLARE MANDATORY ODD/EVEN WATER CONSERVATION FOR ALL CUSTOMERS
CARY, NC – All customers in Cary and Morrisville served by the Cary-Apex Water Treatment Plant are now under a mandatory water conservation declaration requiring commercial and non-commercial water customers to restrict outdoor irrigation to odd or even days of the month based on their street address. ODD-EVEN EXAMPLE: If you live at 316 Academy street, you should only water on even days of the month since your address, "316" is an even number. Cary Town Manager Bill Coleman called for the conservation measures this afternoon due to the continuing hot, dry weather which has impacted supply and demand throughout the Triangle.
"The purpose of today’s water conservation declaration is to guarantee adequate water supply for fire protection, necessary domestic use, and necessary system reserve," said Coleman. "Any gains in supply made by these efforts are not intended to support new growth."
MANDATORY ODDEVEN outdoor irrigation restrictions will remain in effect until lifted by Coleman, but based on previous summer weather patterns, customers should be prepared to operate within the restrictions until October 15, 1999. Failure to abide by the mandatory declaration can result in a maximum fine of $1,000 per day or up to 30 days in jail.
At this point, the only activity affected by the declaration is outdoor watering. For now, other activities such as washing cars and filling swimming pools can continue. However, should conditions fail to improve, Coleman warns that more severe restrictions would have to be considered.
"If drought conditions persist, if our contracted suppliers reduce the amount of water they sell us, or if customer demand fails to decrease, we will be forced to look at cutting back on non-essential water uses throughout the system," said Coleman.
In addition to formally restricting outdoor water use to odd or even days, Cary and Morrisville officials continue to encourage customers to utilize wise water practices whenever they irrigate—no more than one inch of water, once a week, including rainfall.
Officials also point out that golf courses and several private companies such as SAS Institute irrigate from private wells, not from the municipal water supply, so citizens should not be overly concerned if they see this sort of watering occurring.
The maximum capacity of the Cary’-Apex water system is about 22.7 million gallons per day (mgd). On May 30, 1999, system usage peaked at about 21 mgd. Typically, the Town uses about 11.5 mgd’s on a yearly average. The last time Cary instituted mandatory restrictions was in July of 1995.
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| PRIMARY CONTACTS: | Bill
Coleman, Town Manager, 469-4002 Ben Shivar, Assistant Town Manager, 469-4003 Susan Moran, Public Information Officer, 460-4951 or 501-5595 |
