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The Town of Cary, North Carolina has experienced a population growth rate of 164% since 1970 and is expected to continue growing by 60% by 2030. Cary was listed as the 5th fastest growing city in the USA in 1997 by CNN. The 1999-2002 drought was the most intense in 60 years and 2007 was one of the driest in Cary’s history.
With population growing at such a fast pace, the town has come up with programs to maximize the use of a crucial resource – water. The goal is to manage Cary's water resources efficiently thereby delaying costly future construction or expansion of water and wastewater treatment facilities, reduce the amount of treated waste water discharged into the Neuse River Basin and reduce per capita water consumption 20 percent by 2015 (from 1996).
All of Cary’s water comes from Jordan Lake, which they share with other cities. Assuming that there are no changes in water allocations from Jordan Lake and a projected 11% decrease in per capita waster use, Cary’s water demand is expected to grow from 50% of supply in 2010 to 78% in 2030. As demand grows in other communities Jordan Lake’s supplies could be in jeopardy. Some of the ways Cary is reducing water use is through education, wise-water-use landscaping, and incentives and rebates.
Water Conservation
Click here to go to the Town of Cary's Household Conservation page
Household conservation is important to the Town of Cary. Millions of gallons of water are treated every day for drinking, but in fact, less than 1% is used for that purpose. Below is the breakdown of how much water is used and where in the average home.
Education
Click here to go to the Town of Cary's Education page
What do 150 Olympic-size swimming pools and 232 million 8-ounce (236 milliliters) glasses of water have in common? If each Cary resident saved 1 gallon of water a day for a year that is how much water would be saved. This equals to 29 million gallons of water (109,776,941 litres).
Cary believes that community EDUCATION is the BEST way to conserve water!
Cary has many exciting programs to educate their citizens about the economic and environmental benefits of efficient water use! Here are just a few:
- Workshops and Lectures on just about everything you need to know to get started on your way to conserving water in your household (rainwater harvesting, winterizing your irrigation system, composting and vermicomposting are a few recent workshops!)
- Beat The Peak - Cary's special summer conservation program. The Town encourages citizens (and offers workshops and lectures) to make rain barrels, using rain gauges, watering in the morning or late evening, drought resistant and native landscaping and other strategies to beat the worst of the summer drought!
- Recipes for Success - a neat way for citizens to share information with each other on all their successful strategies for water conservation!
- Compost Education Center - Cary's "crash course" in cool composting strategies!
- Block Leader Program - be a leader and help increase your neighbor's awareness and share tips!
- WaterWise Hotline - invites a water expert to come into your home to assess your home to see if you are using water wisely! Experts can identify leaks, make easy recommendations, and provide tips on using water better both inside and outside!
Cary is also committed to educating KIDS in the community! Cary provides many neat programs and school-credit activities to help kids get more involved in water conservation!
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Interactive School Lesson Plans for Elementary, Middle, High school levels. (Freshwater on Earth, How Water is Processed, Wastewater Treatment, and PIPES are a few popular choices!)
- The SLOW (Save lots of Water) program to teach kids how individual efforts can add up to make a huge difference when everyone works together!
- Internet Scavenger Hunt - kids actually get credit for school by doing this internet assignment that teaches about water conservation!
- The Microbots FIRST LEGO League Team: The Microbots have done extensive research and would be happy to share what they have learned.
Irrigation
Click here to go to the Town of Cary's Irrigation page
Irrigation has been a big concern with the Town of Cary. Homeowners and businesses alike want to have nice looking lawns and landscapes. Demands for water during the summer months can more than double that in the winter months. Certain ordinances and laws have been put into place to help everyone. Below is just a sampling.
- The Alternative Day Water Schedule – This is a year round law that assigns each household 3 days a week to water their landscape.
- Rain sensors and timers are now required on all irrigation systems.
- “Wise-Water-Use Landscape” – The North Carolina Cooperative Extension Service has provided tips on how to plan and design a “Wise-Water-Use Landscape”
- Drought Tolerant Plants gives a list of plants that are practical as well as visually pleasing.
- Beat The Peak - Cary’s special summer conservation program. The Town encourages citizens (and offers workshops and lectures) to make rain barrels, using rain gauges, watering in the morning or late evening, drought resistant and “native” landscaping and other strategies to beat the worst of the summer drought!
- Reclaimed water – In 2001 Cary was the first municipality in North Carolina to take advantage of this water project. This system uses separate pipes other than those used for household purposes. The reclaimed water is used for irrigation, manufacturing processes, industrial cooling, street washing and dust control at construction sites. By using reclaimed water, the amount of waste water that is discharged into creeks is decreased. Unlike gray water, which is illegal to reuse in North Carolina, reclaimed water is treated and sent back for reuse instead of discharged into creeks. About 5 million gallon a day is used for this purpose.
Incentives and Rebates
Studies show that by using water efficient fixtures and appliances, indoor water demand can be reduced by 35%. Incentive and rebates also play a big role in water conservation.
- High efficiency toilet retrofit rebate
- Turf buy back
- Warm season grass incentive
The Town of Cary is always looking for new ways to be more water efficient so that they can reach their goal of 20% water use reduction by 2015. Through education, wise-water-use landscaping, incentives and rebates the town has made a difference. Cary knows that the water saved today will be the water 4 tomorrow.
What do 150 Olympic-size swimming pools and 232 million 8-ounce (236 milliliters) glasses of water have in common? If each Cary resident saved 1 gallon of water a day for a year that is how much water would be saved. This equals to 29 million gallons of water (109,776,941 litres). Through education, the Town of Cary is using programs such as the Block Leader Program, which is a special effort to educate citizens about water conservation. Block Leaders are people who volunteer as grassroots environmental educators to increase their neighbors' awareness and understanding of the Town's water conservation, pretreatment of waste water, storm water and solid waste and recycling programs.
The Town of Cary is always looking for new ways to be more water efficient so that they can reach their goal of 20% water use reduction by 2015. Cary has realized that the water saved today will be the water 4 tomorrow.
Please click here to open our printable Cary Brisbane Quick-Fact Comparison Sheet
To see our PowerPoint presentation of the survey results to Town of Cary's Environmental Advisory Board on November 25, 2008, click here.
Resources About the Town of Cary's Water Conservation Program:
http://www.townofcary.org/depts/pwdept/water/waterconservation/overview.htm
http://www.townofcary.org/depts/pwdept/water/waterconservation/iwrmp.htm
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