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Water restrictions


detlef
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So, the Raleigh area is having a record drought to go along with it's record high temps. Apparently people are also using more water than ever before despite the fact that we're in a drought.

 

So, the city is going to get tough and impose "strict water usage restrictions"

 

Check these unreal expectations of control.

 

You can only water your lawn once per week. This is down from the previous limit of 3 times per week. Three freaking times per week? That was the previous restriction? What, were people watering their lawn every day? Besides being wasteful, do they realize that anyone who knows anything about a lawn says that you need to water infrequently but thoroughly for a healthy lawn?

 

The other thing that is really going to leave a mark. You can now only wash your car on the weekends. Wow, way to cut to the bone. No more washing your car twice a week mister OCD car guy.

 

The alarming thing is that somebody who's closer to the issue than I has calculated that this will have a significant effect on the situation. Thus, that must mean that these rather toothless restrictions will actually effect a reasonable amount of people. I have a better idea.

 

Anyone who this actually effects should be beaten and heckled. We're in a drought people! That means there isn't much water! Feel free to stop hosing off your driveway anytime now!

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Southeast South Dakota is growing exponentially. There is no way for them to keep up with water demand so people can only water once per week. There are people that are building their own water reservoirs and hauling water to water their lawn. I say Buffalo grass for everyone.

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Southeast South Dakota is growing exponentially. There is no way for them to keep up with water demand so people can only water once per week. There are people that are building their own water reservoirs and hauling water to water their lawn. I say Buffalo grass for everyone.

Our lot is about 1/2 acre and came with about 8000 sq ft of lawn. We are in the process of ripping out nearly all of it and replacing it with drought tolerant perennials and trees.

 

By this time next year, no more wasting water, paying some dude to spray poison on it 8 times a year, or either paying some dude to mow it or deal with it ourselves. In addition, we're going to have a ton of herbs for the restaurant as well as figs, citrus, and cherries to eat (well, not next year for those and provided the birds save us some).

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Do you buy your pork products from Smithfield? If so youre doing more harm to the fresh water reservs than the guy watering his driveway.

 

 

 

 

According to the EPA, Smithfield's largest farm-slaughterhouse operation -- in Tar Heel, North Carolina -- dumps more toxic waste into the nation's water each year than all but three other industrial facilities in America.

 

In 1998, corporate hog farms in North Carolina spent $1 million to help defeat state legislators who wanted to clean up open-pit lagoons. The state has consistently failed to employ enough inspectors to ensure that hog farms are complying with environmental standards.

 

Hog farms in North Carolina also emit some 300 tons of nitrogen into the air every day as ammonia gas, much of which falls back to earth and deprives lakes and streams of oxygen, stimulating algal blooms and killing fish.

 

Smithfield is not just a virtuosic polluter; it is also a theatrical one. Its lagoons are historically prone to failure. In North Carolina alone they have spilled, in a span of four years, 2 million gallons of Sega! into the Cape Fear River, 1.5 million gallons into its Persimmon Branch, one million gallons into the Trent River and 200,000 gallons into Turkey Creek.

 

The biggest spill in the history of corporate hog farming happened in 1995. The dike of a 120,000-square-foot lagoon owned by a Smithfield competitor ruptured, releasing 25.8 million gallons of effluvium into the headwaters of the New River in North Carolina. It was the biggest environmental spill in United States history, more than twice as big as the Exxon Valdez oil spill six years earlier. The sludge was so toxic it burned your skin if you touched it, and so dense it took almost two months to make its way sixteen miles downstream to the ocean. From the headwaters to the sea, every creature living in the river was killed. Fish died by the millions.

 

Spills aren't the worst thing that can happen to toxic pig waste lying exposed in fields and lagoons. Hurricanes are worse. In 1999, Hurricane Floyd washed 120,000,000 gallons of unsheltered hog waste into the Tar, Neuse, Roanoke, Pamlico, New and Cape Fear rivers. Many of the pig-Sega! lagoons of eastern North Carolina were several feet underwater. Satellite photographs show a dark brown tide closing over the region's waterways, converging on the Albemarle-Pamlico Sound and feeding itself out to sea in a long, well-defined channel.

 

Read the article, you might just stop eating pork all together. :D

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If the normal water restriction was already at 3 days per week, and then the drought has caused them to now scale that back to just 1 day per week, then perhaps they need to plan better and build more infrastructure (water towers and accompanying equipment). That's a big part of what your local taxes should be going for anyway. I would be on the phone asking all of your local politicians why they haven't spent your money towards better planning regarding water usage.

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If the normal water restriction was already at 3 days per week, and then the drought has caused them to now scale that back to just 1 day per week, then perhaps they need to plan better and build more infrastructure (water towers and accompanying equipment). That's a big part of what your local taxes should be going for anyway. I would be on the phone asking all of your local politicians why they haven't spent your money towards better planning regarding water usage.

We got some severe restrictions in the Georgia drought too. The excuse here is that there are water wars between GA, FL and AL upon usage of waters orginating is Georgia that flow to those other states. And I have seen a lot of short-sighted planning around here :D

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Last yr outside of Big D, you could only water your yard once a week, in a 4 hr time period. From 7-11 PM on your day, and couldnt wash your car, or use outdoor water for any reason on weekends.

 

In fact Lowes was selling water pumps you could put in your bath tub, once you were finished taking a bath, and pump it out on your window through a hose to water your yard. And the city gave my neighbor a ticket for that, which was later dropped, as that water was just going to go down the drain, but the idiot water inspector couldnt seem to get that concept. Luckily his boss did when he was called the next day.

 

 

 

 

This yr we got record rainfall in the months of May, and went from extreme drought to the lake spill ways overflowing.

Edited by Sgt. Ryan
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funny how this topic comes up different times, different places. i think it was 5 or 6 years ago here in CO we had a couple severely dry years in a row, and there were all kinds of restrictions, people putting in xeriscaping, etc. this year we have more than we need, the resevoirs are full.

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Do you buy your pork products from Smithfield? If so youre doing more harm to the fresh water reservs than the guy watering his driveway.

Read the article, you might just stop eating pork all together. :D

Actually, the pork I buy is either locally raised Ossabaw pork or Kurabuta pork. Either way it is naturally raised from ranches that practice sustainable methods.

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Last yr outside of Big D, you could only water your yard once a week, in a 4 hr time period. From 7-11 PM on your day, and couldnt wash your car, or use outdoor water for any reason on weekends.

 

This yr we got record rainfall in the months of May, and went from extreme drought to the lake spill ways overflowing.

 

God clearly hates Texas. :D

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funny how this topic comes up different times, different places. i think it was 5 or 6 years ago here in CO we had a couple severely dry years in a row, and there were all kinds of restrictions, people putting in xeriscaping, etc. this year we have more than we need, the resevoirs are full.

You realize that is a good thing, right? I mean the fact that you have more water than you need doesn't actually refute the need to landscape in a manner that doesn't require tons of water.

 

Also, as for Dr. Love's comments, I understand that industry dwarfs residential use. However, when you have 100s of 1000s of people letting their hoses run needlessly, it doesn't help.

 

My wife is obsessive about it, actually. We got some used 55 gal syrup barrels from the local Coca Cola plant and I converted them to rain barrels. Now what little water our new landscaping needs can be dealt with by water from those barrels. We're a regular bunch of freaking hippies!

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You realize that is a good thing, right? I mean the fact that you have more water than you need doesn't actually refute the need to landscape in a manner that doesn't require tons of water.

 

Also, as for Dr. Love's comments, I understand that industry dwarfs residential use. However, when you have 100s of 1000s of people letting their hoses run needlessly, it doesn't help.

 

My wife is obsessive about it, actually. We got some used 55 gal syrup barrels from the local Coca Cola plant and I converted them to rain barrels. Now what little water our new landscaping needs can be dealt with by water from those barrels. We're a regular bunch of freaking hippies!

that water is better for the plants anyway.... hell i have a well and we still use rain barrels it just makes sense...

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