News-Record.com

With cities like Greensboro and Raleigh standing down from the most severe water restrictions, residents might be feeling pretty cocky.

"The drought is over," I've heard more than one person say. Well, no, really it isn't. Local reservoirs are replenished thanks to a freakish amount of spring rain. But the U.S. Drought Monitory still puts most of Guilford County and all of Wake County in the category of "Extreme Drought."

More importantly, there are still all the long term issues that people identified when we were all contemplating whether we'd have to skip the daily showers: development, a growing population, finite water resources, increasing demands of irrigation and industry, etc... Those haven't gone away.

Gov. Mike Easley makes this point after a fashion in a news release / letter he sent out today:

"As of this morning, all 100 counties are still in some form of drought, with 45 in extreme and 36 in severe. However, even though reservoir levels have risen, our groundwater resources, which help keep our streams flowing, are still extremely low. This makes North Carolina very vulnerable as summer approaches.

"In short, there is the potential for exceptional and extreme drought conditions to return this summer and fall, especially with a long-range weather forecast for drier-than-normal conditions through the end of May. Communities that have previously identified alternative water sources or are working on interconnections to backup systems need to move forward with those efforts.

"The drought of 2007-08 has taught all of us that we need to do a better job of managing our water resources year round. We are currently putting together a package of legislative proposals which I announced in March to help us modernize North Carolina's public water systems, mandate water conservation and efficiency, and upgrade the response to water emergencies. My goal is to make our state drought proof."

Click here to read the whole thing.

When reporting on local beats over the past 10 years here and in Pennsylvania, I've seen water management issues get a lot of attention during the heat of a crisis and then when things get back to normal, folks kind of let them slip from the agenda. It'll be interesting to see whether our new found religion when it comes to water conservation sticks, or whether we'll be back to our heathen ways by the time we're reseeding all those suburban lawns this fall.