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Durham, N.C. - With Lake Michie 13.9 feet below full and Little River 26.2 feet below full as of yesterday morning, City Manager Patrick Baker has enacted Stage IV Severe Mandatory Conservation of the City’s Water Conservation Ordinance, effective Monday, December 3, 2007.

Since mandatory restrictions have been in place, the City of Durham’s average daily demand has decreased 31 percent from 35.5 million gallons per day (MGD) to 24.5 MGD.  At the current daily average water demand, Durham’s easily accessible water supply from its two reservoirs will last approximately 59 days, assuming no additional rainfall or inflows into the two reservoirs.  According to Baker, the City’s 59 days of water supply does not include the 25 days of supply from Teer Quarry, nor does it include the 57 days of supply from below the existing intakes at Little River and Lake Michie, for a grand total of 141 days of water supply.  In addition, since late September 2007, the City has been accessing a portion of its 10 MGD Jordan Lake allocation via the Town of Cary.  The City is now moving forward with doubling its pumping capacity from approximately 2 MGD to 4 MGD, which even further extends the City’s water supply.

With mandatory restrictions in place, City officials expect to decrease the daily water demand by an additional 10 to 20 percent.  Residents are asked to rethink their overall water usage habits so they are in full compliance with the Stage IV ordinance by December 3.  “It is critical that our customers follow these increased mandatory restrictions to ensure that there is an adequate water supply for our community throughout the winter,” Baker said.  “We need to significantly decrease our daily water usage even more and our customers play a vital role in making sure we achieve this goal.” 

To help customers further reduce their water usage, Baker provided examples of simple steps, such as taking five-minute showers, limiting toilet flushing, checking for and repairing leaks, only running dishwashers and washing machines with full loads, and using disposable plates and utensils.

The requirements of Stage IV Severe Mandatory Conservation, which include previous restrictions, state that no person shall:

• Water or sprinkle any lawn, grass, trees, golf greens or flowers.  Businesses that are regularly engaged in the sale of plants shall be permitted to use water for irrigation of their commercial stock in trade, using the minimal amount for survival. 

• Water any vegetable garden or ornamental shrubs except by hand-held container during hours specified by the city manager.  Those hours shall, unless varied by the city manager, be between the hours of 5 a.m. and 8 a.m. or 5 p.m. and 8 p.m. on Saturdays only.  Customers shall water during only one of the allowed periods.

• Fill any wading pool or swimming pool or replenish any filled pool except to the minimum essential for operation of chemical feed equipment.

• Make non-essential use of water for commercial or public use.

• Operate water-cooled air conditioners or other equipment that do not recycle cooling water, except when health and safety are adversely affected.

• Wash any motor vehicle or other type of mobile equipment.  Commercial car wash facilities are permitted to use water for such purposes, when 50 percent water savings are documented.

• All industrial, manufacturing and commercial enterprises shall reduce consumption with a goal reduction of at least 50 percent and document the specific efforts they have made to reduce consumption.

Restrictions that carry over from Stage III Moderate Mandatory Conservation include not serving water in a restaurant or food service establishment except upon customers request and that water not be used for unnecessary purposes or intentionally wasted.

City employees will continue to be deployed throughout the City’s service area to monitor customers’ compliance with the restrictions.  To help City staff monitor the effectiveness of these mandatory measures, citizens are encouraged to report water waste to Durham One Call at (919) 560-1200 or online at www.durhamnc.gov/departments/wm/water_report_form.cfm.  

Citizens who are not abiding by the Stage IV measures will be receive a written warning for their first violation.  The second violation will result in a Notice of Violation and the third violation will result in termination of water service.  If water service is terminated, residents will be required to pay a $400 reconnection fee to re-establish water service.

City staff updates the Water Supply Status Web site daily.  Residents may access the information from the red “hot link” on the homepage of the City’s Web site at www.durhamnc.gov.  Additional conservation tips are also posted on the Web site.  Residents may also call the City’s Department of Water Management at (919) 560-4381 for additional information.

About the Department of Water ManagementThe City’s Department of Water Management is responsible for the operation and maintenance of Durham's water supply, water treatment and water reclamation (wastewater treatment) facilities, the collection and distribution systems (including meter reading) and customer billing services.  For more information on this department, visit the City’s Web site at www.durhamnc.gov/departments/wm.