THOMASVILLE, N.C. (WGHP) — It’s been 23 days since North Carolina saw a half inch or more of rainfall, and the Triad is in a moderate drought.
Thomasville city leaders are planning review the city’s Water Shortage Response Plan and discuss possible water use restrictions for the community.
It’s a part of a requirement from the state for city leader to review the water shortage response plans every five years, but it just happens to fall during a time when the state is dealing with a drought.
Lake Thom-A-Lex is the water source for the City of Thomasville and the City of Lexington. Both municipalities work together to implement a plan.
“We measure the lake level during normal times every Monday, and our lake level would have to get to two feet below normal for us to begin to implement restrictions,” Thomasville Public Utilities Director Morgan Huffman said.
Thomasville city leaders will discuss the water shortage response plan adoption at the public safety committee meeting on Wednesday 9 a.m. at the Thomasville Aquatic Center.
The plan is the city’s guidelines on how to deal with water shortage issues related to drought, which includes restriction depending on the level of drought.
“Restrictions include things such as taking showers instead of baths, multiple uses of a toilet before flushing, not leaving faucets running while … shaving or brushing teeth, making sure that dishwashers and clothes washers are fully loaded before a load is run, using commercial car washes that recycle the water rather than doing washing at home,” Huffman said.
The last time the city had to implement restrictions was in 2007. The city’s review of the plan every five years is needed as weather conditions change over the years.
“It gives the council and staff the chance to revisit … the way we’ve worded things and any type of response levels and see if anything needs to change to adapt to any existing conditions as conditions have changed,” Huffman said.
If city leaders have recommendation for changes to the water shortage response plan, the city council will vote on them before they are adopted.
