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Cary, North Carolina is an affluent suburban town located on the edge of Research Triangle Park just west of Raleigh. Over the last ten years, the Town's population more than doubled from 43,858 in 1990 to 96,217 in 2000. Due to this explosive growth, the Cary/Apex Water Treatment Facility (C/AWTF), built in 1993 and originally expected to last until 2010, is currently under expansion. The system experiences strong peaks during the summer's hottest, driest periods, primarily due to irrigation demand. This peak seasonal demand is driven largely by the community's high appearance standards for residential and commercial properties, and inefficient irrigation practices. In May 2000 the system experienced a record maximum day demand of 21.6 MGD (81.8 MLD), more than double the previous winter's average daily water use of 9.9 MGD (37.5 MLD). The Town has implemented water use restrictions as needed since 1999 to manage peak demand during the summer's hot, dry spells. The three consecutive stages of restrictions include odd-even day outdoor watering, a total ban on turf watering, and limited odd-even day watering. In 2000, the Council adopted an Alternate Day Watering policy, which established a year-round watering schedule. Active enforcement of watering restrictions has provided high field visibility for the requirements. The water conservation community has long questioned the effectiveness of the odd-even approach to reduce water use. The Town of Cary employs odd-even primarily as a peak demand management tool. This paper provides an overview of the changes in usage during restrictions, and addresses the ability of the odd-even approach to meet long-term peak demand reduction and water usage reduction goals. While the odd-even approach successfully managed peak demand in 1999, data analysis indicates that it may have increased overall usage slightly.

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Edition: Vol. - No. Published: 01/01/2002 Number of Pages: 6File Size: 1 file , 150 KB