Elon should explain use of lake water to irrigate
Due to exceptional drought, Gov. Easley has mandated citizens and municipalities "tighten their water belts" several more notches. The town of Elon has asked residents to cut back on consumption and curtail unnecessary usage.
The drought indicator well in Gibsonville shows a frightening and continual drop in ground-water levels. Area lakes and ponds are shrinking, and rain that has fallen in the past few months has not changed things one iota.
According to the Burlington Times-News, Elon University is conserving both energy and natural resources. The administration, staff and student body deserve praise. However, the water in its Lake Mary Nell periodically and mysteriously overflows, even in the drought.
We were shocked to learn that the university pumps water into the lake through a 3-inch pipe from a well on its property. It uses this "lake water" for landscape irrigation. Evidently, this is OK because they're important people with lots of money and powerful connections.
The university should be ashamed. While maintaining one of the most beautiful campuses in the country is admirable, doing so by depleting the water table is not.
Judy Barbour
Elon
Comments (2)
To report abuse of the comment feature on this site, please use the feedback form at the bottom of any page.
Sorry, Judy .. this is America where the one with the most money buys all the water. Those that were neither born right nor able to use their God given gifts are scheduled to do without.
It is written in this blog continuously.
Posted on January 4, 2008 5:36 AM
Judy,
Interestingly enough the "groundwater" has not been as affected by the 2007 drought as it was during the 2002 drought. The "Groundwater" levels have only dropped an average of 2 to 4 feet. The 2002 drought saw drops of 5-10 feet!
The town of Elon has requested that the residents using "Town" water conserve their consumption. This is because all of the towns in the Triad region get their municipal water supplies from "surface" water NOT groundwater.
I have mentioned in former blogs that the towns in this area need to start installing town wells to pump water from the groundwater aquifers into the surface water supply lakes during times of drought like this. The Triad as well as many other NC areas are literally sitting on top of a HUGE untapped resource of water!
Now....without going into a long hydrogeology lesson...in a perfect situation the groundwater would be directly linked to the surface water.....and the shallow aquifers are.....but the deep aquifers that have showed little or no influence from this drought are protected by lots and lots of confining clay in this area....this is good since it keeps the influence fo the drought at bay.....but bad because it allows the shallow aquifers to be depleted and not recharged during such stressing events.
Now I agree that it "looks" bad for Elon University to be using the water for irrigation right now.....but in fact we should all be looking at their methods as a viable precedent for future sustainable drinking water solutions!
Posted on January 4, 2008 9:15 AM