Don’t Back Off Now…
Yeah—so it rained a few inches—and it’s gonna rain again this weekend—but that doesn’t mean the drought is over.
Like an alcoholic who insists he can just have one drink and stay sober— some communities think because they’re seeing water where there once was mud and grass—they can start backing off on restrictions.
But the water we’re seeing is really creating a false security…
A couple of posts back, we ran a chart showing the role groundwater plays in our keeping our lakes and streams full…
Despite the 2 inches of rain we received in this week’s storm—it was a gully washer..
It came down so hard—most of it ran off into streams and creeks turning them a muddy brown..
It’s that surface flow that’s suddenly pumped up our reservoirs….
Underground, it’s a different story.
Jared Bales, the head of the U.S. Geological Survey in Raleigh told me that when they checked some of the agency’s monitoring wells, there was NO CHANGE in groundwater levels..
Consider the land like a sponge.
Right now—our sponge still needs almost 10 inches of water to recharge itself.
In our last big drought in 2002, it took 8 months for the recharge to occur.
And forecasters say—we’ve still got a good chance the coming months will be too dry to add significant groundwater to our system..
If that happens, state climatologist Ryan Boyles told me we don’t need to have as bad a summer as last year in order to be in a worse situation water-wise than we were in the Summer of 2007.
Instead of rushing to loosen water restrictions—our municipal leaders need to hold on—keep ‘em in place till about August.
By then we’ll know if we need to continue to be tight fisted with our water—or if we can back off a bit and let sprinklers run freely…
—Steve
Link to video & story Steve covered today on NBC-17
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Comments
Steve:
Thanks for pointing out the groundwater issue. Most of the media have focused on the levels in our lakes but have ignored this important part of the equation. I agree with you and my colleague Eugene Brown that we can’t “back off now.”
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Until I started doing dozens of drought stories—i didn’t realize how important the groundwater was either. Thanks to my good friends, the hydrologists at the USGS and the weather bureau who beat the concept into my brain—i’ve learned… i’m glad to pass it on….
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thanks for this story and for what you and your station has done in the past on this crucial issue. we need to educate the public and I hope you will continue with your very insightful pieces. Rest assured I will keep proding my colleagues on city council. Eugene Brown Durham
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Awww…Shucks…. thanks for the kind words… and if you keep prodding from your end—and i keep ranting from my end— i think folks will eventually get the message!