Editorial: Conserve outside while there’s still water

From staff reports
Published: November 19, 2008

When the rainfall deficit in the region drops to 13.5 inches below normal, most city water customers know what is happening. The Pedlar Reservoir is dropping to abnormally low levels for this time of year, a time when the reservoir should be storing up water to offset the effects of the summer drought. At the same time, Lynchburg has to pump more water from the James River to make up for that rainfall deficit.

But a couple of other things also occur that are critical to a normal supply of rain — something that hasn’t occurred in these parts for two years now. Leading that list is the rising cost of treating water for human consumption. The others relate to environmental impacts on the water itself — and the fish that call the James River home.

All of that amounts to additional reasons to conserve as much of that water as possible. Showers consume less water than baths; and at this time of year, you really don’t need to think about watering lawns.

While city officials are not concerned about running out of water, they are concerned about the low flow of the James and its effects on treatment costs, especially at this time of year.

“Usually at this time we’re pretty close to having a full reservoir because we’ve had a tropical storm that has come along and filled it,” said Tim Mitchell, director of city utilities.

Long-term forecasts aren’t much help either, he said. A Department of Environmental Quality water supply report released last month said, “The longer range concern is that lower-than-normal precipitation during the fall and winter of 2008-2009 will deepen the existing accumulated precipitation deficits and set the stage for significant drought impacts ... in the spring of 2009.”

With the reservoir level lingering at about 140 inches below the spillway, Mitchell says that puts a strain on the utilities budget because it costs more to treat water taken from the river than it does from the relatively cleaner reservoir.

It costs between $50 and $60 to treat 1 million gallons of water from the reservoir. The same amount of water from the river costs about $250 because it needs additional chemicals and takes additional electricity to pump it from the river to the two city filtration plants. There is no energy costs for water from the Pedlar because it flows by gravity to the city.

The city is currently drawing 35 percent of the 10 million to 12 million gallons it uses daily from the river. That additional cost ought to be enough to inspire water customers to conserve water at some point.

As for environmental impacts, water in the river is much darker than normal. That’s caused by a combination of brown algae that hasn’t been washed away by periodic high flows and increased concentrations of tannins from paper mills upstream, according to Jason Hill with the DEQ. The darker water is not a major concern, but it does block out light that sustains plant and algae growth.

A two-year drought, like the one the region is experiencing will noticeably reduce the number of fish in the river. Scott Smith, a fish biologist with the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries, said a two-year drought like the current one “happens from time to time, but if we get a third year of it, then there will really be problems next year in a lot of different areas. Fish tend not to do well without any water.”

Humans don’t do well either. That’s why it’s important to conserve water now — while the Pedlar Reservoir still has some water and while there is at least a reduced flow in the James River.