Raleigh Mayor Unveils Water Conservation Campaign

Raleigh, N.C. — In a bid to remind residents that drought problems are not over, Mayor Charles Meeker launched the “Slow the Flow and Save Some for Later” campaign on Thursday.

The latest state and federal assessments show Wake County and others remain in a severe drought.

“Our community is a smart community. Today, we’re using 15 to 20 percent less water than we used this same day last year. People are understanding conservation is important,” Meeker said.

Earlier this month, the city relaxed water restrictions after a significant rainfall in recent weeks replenished reservoirs, but officials wanted this campaign to keep water usage in check.

“What we decided was that instead of talking to people about sacrifice and what you have to give up, we wanted to come at it in a more positive way and talk to people about doing something for the common good,” said Natalie Perkins, of Raleigh-based creative agency Clean Designs Inc.

In the coming months, the city will launch an interactive Web site to give residents a chance to learn about conserving and to contribute suggestions. The city is also planning public service announcements.

Another portion of the campaign would require businesses to go through a certification program.

4 Comments

WRAL.com welcomes your comments on this story. All comments are moderated prior to publication based on our posting guidelines. Please review them prior to posting and if your message is not approved.

4 COMMENTS

This story is closed for comments. Comments on WRAL.com news stories are accepted and moderated between the hours of 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. Monday through Friday.

Latest Comments

Our water usage habits have not changed since July of 07. When I received my bill for two months ended December 07 (the first bill that showed average daily usage) my wife and I used 131 gallons of water per day. I could not believe we consumed that amount of water, so I checked my meter at night after using water and in the morning and did that for 3 days to insured thre were no leaks. There weren't. I called to asked the city to calabrate my meter, 25 years old and they said we were on the schedule for a new meter. In a few days they replaced our meter and our consumption for 2 ME March, we used 90 gallons of water that means that we have been paying for 2,460 gal of water we have not been using every two months for who knows how long.

Iron Man
April 18, 2008 1:36 p.m.

Not to mention that the Army Corp of Engineers made a mistake when building the Falls of Neuse Lake. They made a math mistake and the lake contains less water than it was planned to contain.

DontLikeTheSocialistObama
April 18, 2008 7:56 a.m.

Thank you. so we have released an extra 3 Billion gallons yes Billon gallons because we are in flood storage. Currently almost 500 million gallons a day which could have been used to start lawns etc. Oh well. gotta keep the lake at 251.5 US ACOE. Be back at Stage 2 soon.

getrealpeople
April 17, 2008 7:59 p.m.

Today, April 17th, the Corps of Engineers are discharging 20,000,000 gallons of water per hour through the dam at Falls Lake. Every two hours, thats equal to Raleigh's daily usage. We don't have a water supply problem. We have a water storage problem. Our reserves for this summer are going down river. No comment from the media?

capitalland
April 17, 2008 6:17 p.m.