News-Record.com

A new law signed by Gov. Easley will help the state better cope with droughts. But North Carolina still needs a broader vision for water use.

The struggle of one High Point woman to decorate her yard with mulch rather than grass illustrates, in plain, front-porch terms, this state’s still-blissful attitude toward water use.

The mulch would save considerable water, not to mention the time, expense and pollution that come with mowing grass. But the woman’s homeowners association has been crystal clear in its response: Plant grass like the rest of us, or else.

The fact is, the state will need to seriously rethink the way it manages its water supply going forward, from whether Mary Fontaine ought to be able to use mulch in her yard to pricing, planning and conservation.

A new law, a new hope

Even as Gov. Mike Easley was signing a new law last week that gives his office and state officials broader latitude to cope with water shortages, the current drought was forcing communities to reimpose restrictions on businesses and residences.

The governor had asked for increased powers to manage statewide droughts, and he got most of them from state lawmakers.

The new law gives North Carolina governors the power to require local water systems to share their water with other regions, even when there isn’t a declared emergency. Under the law, state officials also can tell local systems to impose water restrictions but cannot tell them what those specific restrictions should be.

If those restrictions don’t meet the desired results, the state can order more severe measures.

That’s a promising first drop in the bucket. But in the long run, it’s hardly enough.

The new law will be most helpful in times of crisis, but growth, climate change and the likelihood of future droughts demand major rethinking in how we use water day to day, year-round, even when an emergency doesn’t loom.

Still thirsty for a vision

A pair of experts who are advising a legislative study of the issue say the state lets precious water flow through its collective fingers because of porous policies.

“Overall, it’s fair to say that we’re pretty inefficient when it comes to water use,” one of those experts, Richard Whisnant of the UNC School of Government, told The News & Observer of Raleigh.

Food for thought

Whisnant and Bill Holman, a professor in Duke University’s Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions, particularly point to the lack of a big-picture vision in the state for the ongoing management of the state water supplies. Among some of the points they raise:

The state lacks specific goals for using water more efficiently. North Carolina already has a State Energy Plan, they say. Why not a similar master strategy for water conservation that sets clear measures of water use?

Many state water systems set prices that encourage consumption, not conservation. Greensboro recognized this problem several years ago and adopted tiered water rates. But Holman and Whisnant note that rates in 60 North Carolina communities reward those customers who use the most water.

The fact is, water is plenty cheap already. According to the UNC Environmental Finance Center, the median charge for a customer using 6,000 gallons of water a month in this state is four-tenths of 1 cent per gallon. At that rate, $5 will buy you 1,250 gallons of water. A 20-ounce bottle of water from a vending machine will cost you $1.25. Or 2,000 times as much as North Carolina water systems are charging.

Most water restrictions in the state tend to be imposed because they are easy to enforce, not because they are effective. For instance, restrictions on outdoor watering, they say, do little to reduce longer-term demand, even though they tend to command the most emphasis from city officials.

State building codes should be updated to incorporate new water-saving technology. Again, Holman and Whisnant compare the attention given to energy efficiency versus water efficiency in building plans and materials and in appliance choices.

There are other issues: The need to reclaim treated wastewater for nondrinking uses such as irrigation and cooling. The potential usefulness of water-metering devices indoors, in a format average people actually can understand and track. New landscaping approaches that look attractive but call for less watering.

The new state law is a hopeful first step toward more thoughtful and effective water policies. But we can do more. We have to.

Meanwhile, High Point’s Mary Fontaine looks wistfully at her endangered mulch — while the rest of us pray for rain.