BELVILLE, N.C. (WECT) – Brunswick Regional Water & Sewer H2GO’s executive director says despite the recent rain, customers will remain under a Stage 2 water conservation response through the end of July.

Customers were placed under Stage 2 irrigation restrictions at the end of June. Executive Director Bob Walker said continuing the restrictions through the end of the month, is mostly a precaution as the utility continues to learn how to deal with the fallout from the state’s driest June on record. Most board members aren’t optimistic the problem will go away in future summers.

“We love to say this was a very unusual weather event, but anyone who watches national weather knows that unusual weather events are no longer unusual,” board member Steve Hosmer said. “So the likelihood of this happening again is probably significant.”

Under a Stage 2 water conservation response, customers are only allowed to water their lawns twice a week between the hours of 8 p.m. and 8 a.m.

Hosmer argued that if they had issued Stage 2 irrigation restrictions earlier in the year, they might not have had to upgrade it to a Stage 4 response earlier in June, and possibly would not still be under a Stage 2 response today.

Other board members argued that the problem wasn’t so much H2GO failing to issue responses early enough, but that many customers weren’t listening to the restrictions.

“Even though people were well informed, they didn’t do what they were asked to do,” board member Bill Beer said.

They also said that because this year’s dry summer was unprecedented, they’re still learning how to deal with these conditions. Some members admitted to being more reactionary than proactive as they worked to adjust to the dryness.

To help the problem going forward, board member Rodney McCoy said they are implementing new ways to expand the utility’s capacity in the coming years.

“In the future, we have plans for more wells, which will give us more capacity,” McCoy said. “We also have plans for underground storage up to 80 to 100 million gallons, which will give us a huge capacity and storage.”

McCoy said H2GO is working on acquiring land where the new wells will go, and they should go online by next summer which should help if the dry and hot conditions continue in future summers. He said the underground storage facility will take more time to develop and likely will not be ready by next summer.

Copyright 2024 WECT. All rights reserved.