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[Jeremy Portzer <jeremyp AT pobox.com>]

Tarus Balog wrote:
> On Oct 22, 2007, at 5:07 PM, Tanner Lovelace wrote:
>
>
> By banning watering on thousands of lawns, it has a much greater  
> impact than, say, asking Duke and UNC to stop certain collegiate  
> sports. If there are, say, 80 days of water left in Durham, then  
> having Duke stop watering their playing fields results in 80 days and  
> perhaps a minute of water left.
>
> "Watering Astroturf" makes a great headline, but it isn't the real  
> story.

Good point, but I think part of the issue is the way Duke handled it - 
they don't seem very sympathetic.  (Though I think the reporter wrote 
the article in a way to emphasize their smugness - especially in the 
coach's comments).

But, Tanner neglects to point out that Duke have reduced the watering 
from 36 minutes per day, to just 6 minutes, and only prior to full 
practices and games.   So they have reduced their usage considerably in 
response to the drought; they aren't being *totally* insensitive. 
Comments from Duke students on a different Digg post ( 
http://tinyurl.com/34amcu ) indicate that Duke have provided members of 
the community with extensive information on conserving water elsewhere 
on-campus too.  And it hasn't been proven whether the artificial turf 
requires more water than natural turf anyway - at least the artificial 
turf doesn't require it on non-gamedays, whereas natural turf does if 
you want it to stay alive.

It's easy to point the finger at big organizations and make critical 
headlines, but much harder to come up with proper public policy to truly 
advance the issue.  After all, this is by far the first drought in NC 
(there was one a few years back where various small towns had to hook up 
fire hydrants from one town to the next, and there have been major water 
shortages in Chapel Hill in past decades) - but people still seem to be 
totally surprised when it happens again, despite huge growth in the 
area.  Many over-uses of water need to be curbed even in non-drought 
times, and *serious* infrastructure needs to be invested in reusing 
water - for example, graywater systems in houses, recycled water for 
landscaping at institutions, etc.   This is common in drier places like 
the Southwest - it's not rocket science.

And people need to SERIOUSLY think about how the Southeast overall is 
going to sustain its growth without better attention to water supply. 
We don't have large rivers or lakes like the Northeast or Midwest - and 
creation of reservoirs is politically unpalatable, with no appropriate 
land available.  Much larger public works projects will be necessary to 
bring water in from appropriate sources, and if this investment is not 
made, localities must not approve new development.

Municipalities should also take a "carrot and stick" approach to water 
conservation.  The "stick" approach is banning outdoor watering, but a 
"carrot" approach is to offer incentives for things like low-flow 
toilets and showers, rainwater tanks, etc.  This is common in Sydney, 
where I now live - any household can get a plumber to come out for free 
(paid for by the town), to install a low-flow shower head or toilet flow 
limiter.  But again, implementing this type of thing requires expense 
and public policy discussion - implementing restrictions due to 
"emergency" situations just requires the fiat of an executive branch 
(and restrictions are something towns like to implement because they can 
*make* money from fines).

I hope this particular drought serves as the wake-up call that North 
Carolina (and Georgia and other SE states) need, and proper investment 
is made before it's too late.  After all, the solution to the water 
shortages of the 60s and 70s was Lake Jordan - already long-planned. 
Where's our next major source of water coming from?

--Jeremy, currently outside the Triangle but will be returning one day, 
at least if there's anything left to drink