Raleigh Is Hoping Corps Will Cut Falls Lake Flow in Half

Raleigh, N.C. — Each day, millions of gallons of water flow past Falls Lake’s dam to users living downstream along the Neuse River.

Raleigh leaders are asking the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to cut that amount in half, to about 17 million gallons a day.

The Corps has been reviewing the request for the past two weeks, and local officials were expecting an answer Friday.

“We are confident the Corps and our congressional delegation will help us look at those issues,” said Raleigh City Manager Russell Allen.

It would not be the first time the Corps has cut the flow to help keep Raleigh from drying out.

Last week, the Corps agreed to reduce the amount of water coming out of the lake by 3 million gallons per day.

Raleigh leaders are also asking residents to release less water in their own homes. The City Council voted to ask all homeowners and business owners to install low-flow devices by this Saturday.

The devices fit on sink faucets and showers to minimize the amount of water people use.

The change can make a difference, officials say. The Wake County public schools used 229 million gallons of water last year. They estimate that low-flow devices will save 3 percent of that this year.

The city's concern with relying on low-flow devices to reduce demand is that there is no way to mandate it. The council can only ask residents to comply.

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Latest Comments

you can't blame me for the drought - I've turned my backyard into a urinal so I'm "recycling" the water I drink.

foetine
February 29, 2008 5:32 p.m.

http://www.bae.ncsu.edu/programs/extension/wqg/neuse/basins.html

Here's a map of the Neuse River Watershed, for a view of the bigger picture.

How harsh are the water restrictions for communities downstream?

flashlight
February 29, 2008 4:50 p.m.

ohmygosh - "Typical city folk thinking. "We are the important ones, let the rest of the world croak""

So, you think we should continue to artificially inflate the river level of the Neuse by allowing more water to flow out of the dam than what the feeder streams and rivers are putting into the lake? The only reason that communities downstream on the Neuse have not had problems is because the river level of the Neuse is determined pretty much solely by the amount of water discharged from the Falls Lake dam, and that discharge rate has not changed. Denver suffers from the same issue due to allocations of water in the Colorado river going into California.

fedupwithitall
February 29, 2008 4:33 p.m.

Voice_0f_reason - that's a very good name for you.

fedupwithitall
February 29, 2008 4:08 p.m.

Steve Crisp: "Kinda dramatically points out the ignorance of our city leaders how everyone else can manage their water supply except Raleigh."

Ok, Steve, lets do the math. When a reservoir's OUTFLOW is GREATER than it's INFLOW, do you REALLY think Raleigh is going to be able to keep Falls Lake full? This has NOTHING to do with Raleigh's water supply management and EVERYTHING to do with the source of the supply of Falls Lake UPSTREAM.

Voice_0f_reason
February 29, 2008 3:48 p.m.