Does Wade's critique hold water?
This week's column.
Newly elected City Council member Trudy Wade cites "incompetence on the part of city government!" in her assessment of Greensboro's water policy.
"The City of Greensboro gambled that there would not be a water shortage and we, the citizens, lost," Wade says in a blazing red, white and blue campaign mailer.
The word "incompetent" is printed in bright red letters for emphasis.
Meanwhile, Jim Morris, director of the state Division of Water Resources, tells the News & Observer of Raleigh, "Greensboro has done everything right" when it comes to managing its dwindling water supply.
So, which is it? Is Greensboro the paragon of water policy or a case study in short-sightedness?
City Councilman Mike Barber agrees with Morris.
While he has issues with some city departments, Barber said Thursday, Water Resources isn't one of them.
"That is truly a department that we can be proud of," Barber says. "(City Water Resources Director) Allan Williams and his team are held up as the best department in North Carolina, if not the whole Southeast."
Barber is a sitting council member. So you might expect him to make such pronouncements.
Yet even a daily newspaper in another North Carolina city agrees. In a recent news story and an editorial, the News & Observer of Raleigh praises Greensboro for its forward-thinking water initiatives.
Among moves the N&O lauds:
• Building pipelines to Burlington, Reidsville and Winston-Salem for water purchases during droughts.
• Pushing citizen conservation in proactive public relations campaigns.
• Taking part in the regional water authority that built and will operate the new Randleman reservoir.
• Structuring water rates that penalize high-volume users.
That's all well and good, Wade said last week, but the city should have done more. For starters, she said, it could have begun building a pipeline from the Randleman reservoir more than two years ago.
Then the city could tap water from that lake, which isn't scheduled to come online until 2011 at the earliest, right now in a dire emergency, she said.
Wade certainly raises a reasonable question. If you're going to have to build a pipeline eventually anyway, why not now? Why not yesterday?
"Go ahead and run the pipeline down to Randleman Lake," Wade said. "I'd like to be sure that when we're in an emergency situation, we'll have water."
Tom Phillips, another sitting City Council member, says such a notion is misinformed and impractical.
"That is so wrong I don't know where to begin," said Phillips, who has represented Greensboro on the board of directors of the regional water authority that oversees the lake and dam since 1992. "She's in left field and you can quote me on that."
First of all, Phillips said, the city could not act unilaterally. The lake belongs to a coalition of governments, including Greensboro, High Point, Archdale, Jamestown, Randleman and Randolph County.
Greensboro has only a 30 percent say on how that authority operates the reservoir.
"There are tons of subplots involved when you're dealing with different governments," Phillips said.
As an example, High Point's representative to the board, former Mayor Arnold Koonce, said he would favor moving ahead with the plan and timetable the water authority already has set to build a regional treatment plant.
"To serve everybody's need, we ought to stick with the treatment plant and move on," Koonce said Thursday.
But even if Greensboro's partners were to sign off on an emergency pipeline, the lake contains raw water that would need to be treated before it would be fit for human consumption.
So Greensboro would have to build the treatment plant. For $60 million. Plus the pipeline.
Had Wade inquired about the cost?
No, she said last week. That's "a technicality."
Still, let's say you bypass that step and pump the raw water directly into Greensboro for treatment. Then you'd have to acquire the right-of-way for the pipeline.
Phillips says that wouldn't be a big problem along U.S. 220 into Greensboro.
But once you got into the city limits, then what? You'd have to extend the pipes to the nearest existing treatment plant, the Mitchell Treatment Plant, meaning 16-plus more miles of pipe across interstates 40, 73 and 85, as well as railroad lines.
More right-of-way to be negotiated for and bought. Pipe to be laid and buried. Permits to be obtained.
There are more complications. The pipeline from the city limit to the Mitchell Treatment Plant would become essentially useless once the new regional treatment plant is built.
Would a temporary pipeline be worth the massive investment in taxpayers' dollars?
John Kime, executive director of the Piedmont Triad Regional Water Authority, recently told the News & Record's Taft Wireback that even under a best-case scenario we won't be sipping water from the Randleman reservoir for at least another four years.
Even so, Wade was right to raise the question about the pipeline. As they say, the only bad question is the one not asked.
Wade only gave voice to concerns other citizens have raised.
But Wade at least could have gotten some more concrete answers before casting a broad, wet blanket of aspersions on city government.
"I think we should be proactive and look ahead," Wade said last week. "But certainly I'd want to talk to other council members and staff."
Why not have those conversations before settling on premature conclusions in screaming red ink?
If Wade has asked, she'd know that city officials had considered her pipeline idea. And others. Years ago.
Aside from the pipelines to other cities, and the purchase of a dam on the Haw River, the city also explored its own option for drawing raw water from Randleman Lake.
City officials considered an arrangement with High Point in which raw water from Randleman Lake would be pumped into High Point's lake system, treated in High Point's plants, then piped to Greensboro.
The water authority board chose against that option.
In light of the ongoing drought it is important to have an informed discussion. And to ask tough questions.
If past is prologue, Wade, who performed well as a county commissioner, will be especially good at that.
But not in this case.
The last thing Greensboro needs right now is a shortage of facts about its shortage of water.
Contact Editorial Page Editor Allen Johnson at 373-7010 or at aohnson@news-record.com.
Comments (6)
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I do not know much about Greensboro water problem, are do I care. However I had a professer in the 60's that used Greensboro as an a bad example for not taking care of future water problems.I can tell you about Caswell County, some 20 years ago, we past a school bond, and part of the promise was to start getting water county wide. Well nothing has been done to date, however we have spend tons of money on a high speed internet sham. The same evil press that told us we had to have water, is not telling us we have to have internet. Damn I will be glad when we get internet. I tried of only having about 20 to chose from.
Posted on November 11, 2007 7:41 AM
Praises of Greensboro for its "forward-thinking water initiatives" is a bit of a stretch. If anything, Greensboro has been more reactionary instead of proactive in its efforts to alleviate the water supply problems. As for the "initiatives" listed by the Raleigh News & Observor:
· It's true that the City of Greensboro has been running water pipelines from Winston-Salem, Burlington, and Reidsville to relieve the shortages in the city's supplies. But the News & Record fails to state that these water lines were quickly constructed for the last major drought in 2002. And the lines' construction was an EMERGENCY action that was quickly slapped together to avoid growing dangers from a similar drought. It was also stated at the time that the water lines would probably not be completed before the end of the drought but would be in place in case another drought occurred.
· There is nothing new about "pushing conservation in proactive public relations campaigns". Almost every politician, government bureaucrat, Hollywood celebrity, not-so-famous celebrity, wannabe celebrity, and media outlet have pushed proactive public relations campaigns through public service announcements. It makes them feel and look good but the public does not get the benefit of real results.
· The regional water authority is a given and is not an initiative that the City of Greensboro chose to implement. The scope and size of the Randleman Dam project dictates that Greensboro be part of a regional authority.
· Restructure of high-volume water rates is perhaps the only suggested inititative that the City of Greensboro has implemented. Now if they can only apply the same logic to the incentives for new businesses, higher infrastructure costs of new businesses (roads, power grids, zoning, condemnation), and failure to extend the same to existing businesses that have served the City for years.
Tom Phillips, who has been on the regional water authority since 1992, states that there are tons of subplots involved when dealing with other governments. Helllllo!!!! Since 1992??? How long does it take to "deal" with other governments to plan a water project. It's not like they are foreign governments scattered around the world and the United Nations is discussing the ramifications of multilateral treaties on fishing and boating rights. Nor is it the Panama Canal.
Also, would such a water pipeline require the very first right-of-way needed to cross interstates 40, 73 and 85, as well as railroad lines? Do we not already have existing utilities that have existing rights-of-way crossing these same interstates and railroads? Are there not bridges or underpasses that could readily be used for additional pipelines that would take advantage of existing rights-of-way? Is it too much to ask such a question or do we need to continue putting up our own roadblocks to create further delay?
The consideration of a plan to pump raw water into High Point's lake system, treat the water in High Point's plants, then pipe the water to Greensboro sounds less convincing. If Greensboro was able to construct 3 emergency pipelines from Winston-Salem, Burlington, and Reidsville, deal with 3 municipal and 3 county governments along state-maintained roadways, while navigating the acquisition of rights-of-way and other obstacles as well, then why could Greensboro not convince the water authority board or High Point of a possibly workable alternative? That may be a better "tough question" to ask instead of just accepting that the water authority board "chose against that option".
Perhaps a real hard-nosed reporter (not an editor) can ask some real questions of politicians and water authority board members about the water shortages and the decades-long delay in getting resolution. Some questions that a real reporter might ask:
· It is implied in Mr. Johnson’s blog that the Randleman Dam water treatment plant and pipelines have not been constructed or scheduled for completion when the dam is completed. Why are the water treatment plant and pipelines not already constructed or in process? (So that they can be more ready when the dam is completed)
· If the water treatment plant and new water lines had been started when the dam construction was started, would the construction costs been less than, equal to, or more than today's costs of starting such construction?
· If the Randleman Dam and its water treatment plant and new water lines had been constructed and completed, say, five years ago and that water had come on line then, would the emergency water lines from Winston-Salem, Burlington and Reidsville been necessary? Could the money applied to the emergency water lines been saved or applied to tax savings for all the communities?
· Why are we waiting for High Point, Archdale, Jamestown, Randleman and Randolph County's multilateral permission to begin construction of a pipeline that is already planned to be constructed to a lake that is being constructed to deliver water that is supposed to be delivered? What do we do when the water is there and no pipeline or water treatment is ready? Do we just back the tanker trucks up to the water's edge, fill up and truck up the road to Greensboro to unload until the pipeline and treatment plants are multilaterally approved and constructed?
· The director of the state Division of Water Resources tells the News & Observor in Raleigh that "Greensboro has done everything right". And Mike Barber praises "(City Water Resources Director) Allan Williams and his team...as the best deparment in North Carolina, if not the whole Southeast." Isn't that like saying that the coach has done everything right and his staff is the best despite having the worst record in the league? The water shortages have continued and worsened despite the warnings and recurrence of droughts for decades. You could say that the operation was a success despite the death of the patient.
Posted on November 11, 2007 3:11 PM
Why don't you have some cheese with that whine.
Posted on November 11, 2007 8:45 PM
To Gatcity Keeper:
LUV THE RESPONSE!! I hate to see what kind of
cheese is served with that whining.
Posted on November 12, 2007 9:54 AM
It is incredible that the dam is finished, the lake is nearly full and the water line and treatment plant has not even been started. We have every right to blame someone.
Posted on November 12, 2007 5:24 PM
Where do you place the blame, Joe? And what would you have done differently?
Posted on November 13, 2007 9:16 AM