Drought not all La Niña’s fault

• UNC Environmental Finance Center Web site: www.efc.unc.edu
• “Water WIKI: Collaborative Water Study” Web site: water.unc.edu

Sagging rainfall totals have plunged the state into its worst drought in recorded history, but North Carolinians could be better able to weather the drought with better usage, storage and management decisions, according to a School of Government (SOG) associate professor.

Richard Whisnant, who is helping to produce a comprehensive study of water allocation for the General Assembly’s Environmental Review Commission, addressed members of the NCACC’s Environment Steering Committee during their Jan. 30 meeting in Raleigh. The state’s inefficiency in its use of water is well documented, but the study will also take a look at how much water is stored and how much runs off into the ocean, Whisnant said, as well as decisions by management entities on when and how much water is released from reservoirs.

“It’s possible that in anticipating how much rain they would get, they released too much water early in the year,” he said. “We have very low stream levels and soil moisture in many parts of the state.”

The SOG and Duke’s Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions are working on the study. Of chief concern to counties is an effort to force public water supplies to interconnect. According to NCACC Senior Associate General Counsel Paul Meyer, bills introduced in several consecutive sessions would have mandated interconnectivity but did not provide framework or funding.

“It’s that lack of connectivity that this whole drought has brought out,” said Henderson County Commissioner Chuck McGrady, who co-chairs the committee with Person County’s Jimmy Clayton.

According to Whisnant, the state’s system of riparian rights doesn’t do a good job of deciding who has priority on water when conditions call for restraint.

“Our history has been one of not much management of water withdrawal,” he said.

Those issues would have to be resolved, said Orange County Commissioner Alice Gordon, because water suppliers that do a good job of regulating usage don’t want to connect only to fund another area’s growth.

The Feb. 5 N.C. Drought Advisory classified 67 counties as being under “exceptional” drought conditions – the most severe category in the five-level system. Another 25 counties were under an “extreme” drought, while the remaining eight were under a “severe” drought.

– Jason King