Environment News in Raleigh

The City of Raleigh released a detailed update about our water shortage today.  The recent rains rapidly recovered a third of the lakes capacity or 5 billion gallons and extended our usable water another 135 days.

Is Raleigh going green? Faced with drought and booming growth, is the city finally looking at both our present and future situation to develop sustainable solutions? Evidence suggests that the motivation to cultivate environmental responsibility is indeed present, though not quite prevalent, in downtown Raleigh. Now a new project downtown is poised to further demonstrate Raleigh’s commitment to sustainable design.

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Fred Fletcher Park’s Water Garden was approved early last week to begin construction and is expected to be finished by the end of June.  The Water Garden is a Storm Water Management Division project that is designed to achieve several environmental and aesthetic goals by managing runoff in an attractive way.

More Below The Fold and Slideshow for RSS Readers

While last night’s storm added more than a foot of water to Falls lake, today’s council meeting decidedly pushed the city toward a tiered pricing structure for Raleigh water services. The program is expected to start next spring- following upgrading of the billing software.

Additionally the council approved new water inspectors that would be visiting businesses and apartment complexes to insure low-flow faucets and shower-heads are being used.  While the enforcement seems harsh it certainly seems necessary considering the current situation.

10 billion gallons down and only 5 left.. that gets us to, well, July.  WakeUp wants to help the populous get informed and they have put together a panel of experts to discuss how we got here and what we can do to help this very dry situation.

When Will the Water Run Out? Information below the fold