COME ON RAIN!! 

The drought situation isn't funny, but, it's always fun to poke fun at local government, isn't it?!

These cartoons were in the local paper recently, and made me laugh. Hope you find some humor in them, too.

Durham, like many other North Carolina counties is suffering a serious drought -- the worst in recorded history. Below are the details of current water supply levels, and the county's stage IV conservation mandate.

 For more details you can visit Durham's Water Conservation Division's website.

According to the Durham Water Conservation Division (as of March 2): 

Current Conditions

Using the 30-day running average demand as of March 2, 2008 of 20.08 MGD:

• Days of supply of easily accessible, premium water remaining (Lake Michie, Little River Reservoir): 169 days
• Days in Teer Quarry storage remaining: 19 days
• Days of less accessible water below the intake structures remaining: 60 days
• Total days of supply = 248 

Stage IV - Severe Mandatory Conservation Modifications Enacted, effective December 3, 2007

Stage IV of the ordinances incorporates practices in Stage I, II and III and increases the level of conservation efforts to require the following Mandatory Measures:

• NO watering or sprinkling of any lawn or grass.
• NO watering of trees, ornamental shrubs or vegetable gardens except by hand-held container on Saturdays, between the hours of 5 a.m. and 8 a.m. or 5 p.m. and 8 p.m.
• Do NOT wash down outside areas such as sidewalks, patios, driveways, or for other similar purposes.
• Do NOT fill any wading pool or swimming pool or replenish any filled pool except to the minimum essential for operation of chemical feed equipment
• Do NOT use water for any unneccessary commercial or public purpose.
• Do NOT operate water-cooled air conditioners or other equipment that do not recycle cooling water, except when health and safety are adversely affected
• Do NOT serve water in a restaurant or similar establishment except upon request.
• Do NOT use water for any unnecessary purpose or intentionally waste water.
• Do NOT Wash any motor vehicle or other type of mobile equipment. Any person regularly engaged in the business of washing motor vehicles and any commercial car wash facility shall be permitted to use water for such purposes, when 50% water savings are documented.

 A couple tips from their site:

1. Time your showers, and keep them under 5 minutes. You can save 1000 gallons of water per month!

2. Put a drop of food coloring in the tank. If it shows up in the toilet bowl without flushing, you have a leak. Leaks are easy to fix and can save 500 gallons of water per month!

Dawn Grasty

Broker, Prudential Carolinas Realty

www.dgrasty.com

919-210-5418