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a clear case of skirting the intent

So right, JDR!

What most people don't know is that when you use your "well" you are using the Greensboro drinking water! It may not be coming from a pipe directly from Lake Townsend BUT none the less IT IS from the same source!

A lake and or stream IS the water table as it intersects a low spot in the topography. When you take water from your well it stresses the regional aquifer and WILL affect the lake levels!

I just cannot understand the concept of watering one's lawn to keep it alive during a drought! Who, in a sane mind, would want to be out in the extreme heat/humidity mowing a lawn?

Do the people who water their lawn, whether by city water or well water, not realize that to do so during a drought only helps to reduce the level of water available. That water may be needed at a later time and it may not be available.

Imagine that, a nice plush green lawn and the owner dying of dehydration. What a shame to think this could happen. It is not as "out there" as some will claim.

Shalom

I'm afraid I don't understand the fascination that folks have with their lawns that they would waste an immense amount of a resource that is such short supply.

What's truly funny is to see a sprinkler system going during a downpour.

Needless to say I haven't seen that in a while.

Rufus, I did last Tuesday evening here in High Point!

Shalom

Wow, I totally agree with Rufus and Darryl. I have a well, doesn't matter to me, what is the point in trying to keep the lawn green when it hasn't rained a few months? The only thing that is still growing is the crabgrass, that stuff can survive drought or nuclear fallout for that matter.

So Dan,

Tell home bounds about Tanzania.

So Dan,

Tell us home bounds about Tanzania.

& welcome back btw.

Actually, geohokie, the notion that a well draws water from Greenboro's drinking water supply depends a great deal on where one lives. The topography of Greensboro is such that land generally north of Pisgah Church Rd. flows towards our resevoirs. Water south of there does not contribute to our drinking water supply.

Thus, Membername, the reason why I noted "regional". And yes, the "surface water" runs off to the north of Pisgah Church Road BUT the entire "regional" water supply includes the majority of Greensboro Metro Area and YES the "regional" aquifer is affected by well usages especially during times of drought like this.

Go here http://h2o.enr.state.nc.us/basinwide/images/capefear2.gif

Hydrology not only includes looking at which side of the road the rain drop will roll to, BUT also stepping back and looking at the BIG picture of the regional aquifer (river basin in this case).

The big question is: what are they doing with the golf courses?

Seems like if you were taking water out of your well and then putting it right back on the ground again, that a good amount of it would end up back in the water table anyway.

That seems right but it may be completely wrong.

Nitpicker,
You have a valid point. It would make sense that the water would go back into the "system". BUT we are talking about 100 to 300 foot wells that are set in rock. The water that is taken out of the well is sometimes hundreds if not thousands of years away from the day that it fell as rain. Soil acts like a huge coffee filter and it takes a long time for surface water to infiltrate into rock. You have shallow aquifers and deep aquifers....the shallow aquifers have already been stressed and or depleted by the drought, it's the deep ones that we truly need to protect in times like this. (It's the deep ones that most people are watering their lawns from)

I can not speak for all golf courses but the Town of Lexington's Municipal Golf Course purchases re-use waste water from the waste water treatment plant for their irrigation. Crooked Tree has irrigation ponds that it maintains for event like this....it just depends.