Will Ernesto prevent a drought?

An August 24 press release from the Rivanna Water and Sewer Authority urged Charlottesville-area citizens to restrict their use of water, following a record demand of 14.1 million gallons on Wednesday, August 23. At the time of the release, the RWSA measured the usable water supply storage at 84 percent of capacity, and advised citizens to restrict unnecessary water use in general, and outdoor use in particular.
    A brush with the rain-dumping storm named Ernesto (which was classified as a tropical depression at press time), however, could rehydrate the area’s reservoirs. According to research coordinator Jerry Stenger of UVA’s Virginia State Climatology Office, “the moisture situation in the Charlottesville area could have changed rather dramatically” by press time.
City Water Conservation Coordinator Todd Morris concurred with Stenger’s statement. “As of midnight, September 1, the useable water level was at 88 percent,” Morris told C-VILLE Friday morning. “We look to be at 100 percent capacity at the end of the storm.”
    Despite the winds of change, however, Morris maintains that water conservation ought not to depend on the whims of a storm.
    In a previous conversation, a few days before Ernesto’s impact was felt here, Morris explained that RWSA uses “OASIS,” a program designed by the water resource management firm Hydrologics, Inc., to anticipate the probability of drought based on historical weather records and estimates of public demand for water. The system provides data that factors into RWSA’s decision to declare a “Drought Watch,” the first of a three-stage Drought Management Plan for Albemarle County and Charlottesville.
    “Once we get to 80 percent of our capacity,” he said, in reference to the total reservoir storage capacity, “we go to a Drought Watch.”
    Morris stresses that the solution of conservation requires year-round discipline from citizens. “Winter moisture is what replenishes ground water,” says Morris. But “summer gets more attention…when [people] notice how brown the grass is.”
    The Charlottesville Public Utilities Office offers water-conservation tips on their website, accessible through www.charlottesville.org, and distributes both indoor and outdoor conservation kits at the Department of Public Works.
    Stenger explains that the summer’s peculiar storm season explains the diminished reservoirs. “A year with little tropical activity tends to be a year with dry conditions late in the growing season,” Stenger says. “This is precisely what occurred in July and August: scattered storms, and no tropical passages to bring large amounts of moisture at one time.”