Tryon Town Council expressed concern last week over the state’s recommended update to its water shortage response plan.
Council members met Tuesday, Aug. 16 and discussed the new regulations. All council members said they see problems with the new method.
The new restrictions on water use during times of drought would require water customers to reduce percentages of water use depending on the stage of drought.
The state’s proposed plan says when the town is in stage 1, voluntary reductions, all customers will be asked to reduce their water use by five percent. Customers are expected to reduce their water use by 10 percent in stage 2 (mandatory reductions), by 20 percent in stage 3 and by 25 percent in stage 4.
“How would the homeowner know what to do, because they don’t know what they use until they get the bill?” asked councilman Austin Chapman. “Do they go out and look at the meter and try to figure out what that is?”
Council members said they were particularly concerned over clauses in the draft plan that specify water bills in later stages of drought that could be based on rates one and a half, two and even five times the normal rates.
Tryon Town Manager Justin Hembree said the N.C. Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) is most likely telling towns they need to wake up and realize that when customers use less, systems have to run on less revenue.
“We have some people that use the minimum,” said councilman Wim Woody. “It would be hard to use less than the minimum and it’s not fair to charge them double the rate.”
Tryon officials also expressed concern that the decrease in use will depend on the previous month’s water bill. They said a customer could have had a particularly low month because they were out of town or for some other reason.
Chapman said he wouldn’t be comfortable adopting a plan such as the state is suggesting and added that he thinks more people understand clear-cut restrictions, such as saying customers can’t water their lawns or wash their cars. The town’s current water shortage plan restricts customers from such activities depending on the severity of the drought.
Hembree said the proposed plan would be hard to enforce. The staff would have to figure out what each individual’s reduction would need to be. He also said there are probably a lot of provisions in the town’s current water shortage plan that would be more strict than the state’s recommended plan. He suggested asking the state what the town can do to identify the reductions in percentages.
“In Stage 4, Emergency Reductions, customers must continue all actions from previous stages and further reduce their water use by 25 percent compared to their previous month’s water bill,” says the state’s suggested water shortage plan. “A ban on all uses of drinking water except to protect public health and safety is implemented and drought surcharges increase to 2 times the normal water rate.
“The goal of stage 5, water rationing, is to provide drinking water to protect public health (for example, residences, residential health care facilities and correctional facilities),” the state’s plan says. “In stage 5, customers are permitted to use only the minimum of water required for public health protection. Firefighting is the only allowable outdoor water use and pick-up locations for distributing potable water will be announced according to Tryon’s Emergency Response Plan. Drought surcharges increase to five times the normal water rate.”
As of Friday, Aug. 26, Polk County’s drought classification was D1, moderate drought conditions, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor of North Carolina. The drought monitor is updated every week (see maps above).
According to the state’s draft water shortage response plan, under current conditions, Tryon’s water customers would be under voluntary reductions and be asked to reduce their normal use by five percent.
For stage 1 drought conditions, the new state plan would say, “Customer education and outreach programs will encourage water conservation and efficiency measures including:
• Irrigating landscapes a maximum of one inch per week;
• Preventing water waste, runoff and watering impervious surfaces;
• Watering plants deeply to encourage root growth;
• Washing only full loads in clothes and dishwashers;
• Using spring-loaded nozzles on garden hoses; and
• Identifying and repairing all water leaks.”
“[The state’s recommended guidelines just encourage] people to drill wells,” said councilman Doug Arbogast regarding the state’s suggested plan. “At some point it becomes cheaper to drill a well.”