The rains have been falling a bit more steadily around the Bull City and the Triangle in general, something that's come to bear on our water reservoir levels. At tonight's City Council meeting, city manager Patrick Baker announced that Lake Michie is now full, and the Little River Reservoir sits at 352.4 ft., or 2.6 ft. below normal.
The total reservoir capacity is now set at 93% of total maximum capacity, up from the drought low level of 11% on December 23, 2007. At the current 19.82 million gallons per day (MGD) consumption rate, there are 299 days of premium water and 379 days of total water supply available.
Lake Michie and the Little River Reservoir are so full, you could swim in them -- and, heck, now you can. As of this Saturday, both will be open for recreational purposes from 6:30am until 6:00pm on weekends.
Baker mentioned that the City would bring forward more data and thoughts on the lake levels and drought restriction levels at this Thursday's Council work session. BCR sources suggest that a move to throttle back to less-restrictive Stage III restrictions may be on the docket at Thursday's session.
...
Not that water was the most-amusing beverage on the Council docket last night. The Full Frame documentary festival brought its annual request for the right to serve alcoholic beverages at the Civic Center Plaza during its award-winning annual festival (scheduled to take place again this year April 3-6.)
The pro forma vote passed 6-1 -- over the objectives of Howard Clement, who intoned in his deep voice that it hardly seemed proper or necessary to sell alcohol in public in this way.
It was an oddly Broadway moment for a City Council meeting that seemed more like a Hollywood film (a phenomenon we'll explore in discussing the Greenfire plan)... with the esteemed Councilman Clement playing the role of the Professor, warning us that we've got trouble right here in River City.
Er, okay. Oenophiles, rest assured, you'll get your aqueous treats come Full Frame. Just another night in Durham's political, er, theater.
Howard always does that. No booze for you!
Posted by: observer | March 19, 2008 at 12:45 AM
I'm impressed that the reservoirs can go from 11% to 93% full in 3 months when the rain since Jan 1 has actually been slightly below normal. The engineers who sited the dams many years ago definitely knew what they were doing.
Posted by: hurley | March 19, 2008 at 10:42 AM