Not all Raleigh water customers are the use limits the city set early in the drought, and officials are stepping up their enforcement efforts because of it.
Ed Buchan, Raleigh Water assistant director, told WRAL, "We've seen over the last couple weeks our average day demand has been increasing, even on days where irrigation is not permitted."
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Buchan said,"We know it's been hot and dry, but it certainly seems like we get a lot of reports about noncompliance, and we're stepping up our enforcement efforts starting this week to really make sure that people know the rules and will follow them."
Last week, the average daily water usage for Raleigh water customers was 71.46 million gallons per day. And for perspective, during the week of May 18, one month into the Stage 1 water restrictions, the average daily water usage was 59.66 million gallons per day.
As of Tuesday, Falls Lake is 5.3 feet below lake level, taking the water supply to 66%. That is a 3% drop from last week.
Stage 1 water restrictions were implemented on April 20 after the Falls Lake water supply dropped to 85%.
For additional water restrictions to be implemented (in the city's parlance, "Stage 2"), the water supply must reach a specific trigger level that varies by month. For example, if the Falls Lake water supply had reached 60% in April, Raleigh would have moved to Stage 2 restrictions at that time. If the water supply had reached 55% in May, Stage 2 restrictions would have been implemented then. For June and July, the trigger for Stage 2 water restrictions is 45%.
At Tuesday's Raleigh City Council meeting, Raleigh City Manager Marchell Adams-David also voiced her concern over the uptick in water usage in June and urged everyone to conserve water. She said Stage 2 water restrictions could happen as soon as July.
For Falls Lake water supply to get back to normal, Buchan says, "It would obviously be probably a tropical event at this point to really get us back to a safe level, but we don't want to ever really hope for something like that.
"We'd rather just have natural rainfall over time fill things up, but we're looking at this as a long-term event."
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Here’s what to know about Stage 1 water restrictions:
- Automatic and non-automatic spray irrigation is allowed between midnight and 10 a.m.
- Homes with odd-numbered addresses may water on Tuesdays.
- Homes with even-numbered addresses may water on Wednesdays.
- Irrigation of landscapes is recommended at a maximum of one-half inch per week.
- Water customers must abide by required water use reductions and efficiency measures; penalties apply for noncompliance.
Since April 20, officials have issued 341 educational letters, 10 official warnings and 478 violations reported.
Kimberly Holmes-Iverson with Raleigh Water said, "We’re getting closer to Stage 2 restrictions, which would limit lawn watering to handheld hoses or drip irrigation only."
The city has published details about what State 2 or Stage 3 water restrictions would entail.
If someone spots a violation, the best way to report it is to email Water.Conservation@raleighnc.gov.
For a first violation, a property owner gets a warning letter; a second earns a $100 fine, and a third violation is a $500 fine. Continued non-compliance could result in water service being cut off.
