Beyond The Blueprint | 09.25.26 | Hosted by Brad Howard

Let's start on the water because this is Lake Norman Radio.

You might have looked out at the lake after the rain a few weeks ago and thought, well, the drought's over.

I thought the same thing, but it isn't.

As of mid-September, Charlotte Water says the Catawba River Basin is still in a Stage 2 drought.

Stage 2 was declared back on May 1st, and Stage 2 was the level where water supplies move from asking you to conserve to requiring it.

So why hasn't the rain fixed it? The utilities watch three things.

Lake levels, the six month average of stream flow, and the three month average from the U.S. Drought Monitor.

That six month stream flow number is still showing a drought.

One good soaking up helps the surface, but the shortage built up over a lot of months and it takes months of steady rain to fill back in the hole.

The chair of the Regional Drought Group put it well to the Queen City News in August.

We're a lot better than we were, but we're certainly not completely out of the woods.

Now here's the part I want you to hear because it's good news.

Charlotte Water says customers have done a great job saving water in the community.

and it's hitting water use restriction reduction goals and that's you your shorter showers you skipped along a few days it's working the whole region pulls in the same direction it shows up in the numbers and that matters because this basin supplies drinking water to about two million people in both carolinas and think about the shape of it the catawba starts up in the blue ridge mountains runs down through our lakes in the charlotte metro and keeps going into south carolina every town along the river is drinking from the same glass And here's what stage two means behind the scenes.

Duke Energy, which runs the dams, cuts back the water when it releases downstream.

So the lakes hold on to more.

And the public water systems across the basin put mandatory restrictions in place.

That's the whole river tightening its belt at the same time.

No one being singled out and everyone pitching in.

Lake Norman isn't only where we boat.

It's the region's water tank.

And we all share it.

So here's your one action.

Your own water provider sets your restrictions.

Look them up this weekend.

Let's start on the water because this is Lake Norman Radio.

You might have looked out at the lake after the rain a few weeks ago and thought, well, the drought's over.

I thought the same thing, but it isn't.

As of mid-September, Charlotte Water says the Catawba River Basin is still in a Stage 2 drought.

Stage 2 was declared back on May 1st, and Stage 2 was the level where water supplies move from asking you to conserve to requiring it.

So why hasn't the rain fixed it? The utilities watch three things.

Lake levels, the six month average of stream flow, and the three month average from the U.S. Drought Monitor.

That six month stream flow number is still showing a drought.

One good soaking up helps the surface, but the shortage built up over a lot of months and it takes months of steady rain to fill back in the hole.

The chair of the Regional Drought Group put it well to the Queen City News in August.

We're a lot better than we were, but we're certainly not completely out of the woods.

Now here's the part I want you to hear because it's good news.

Charlotte Water says customers have done a great job saving water in the community.

and it's hitting water use restriction reduction goals and that's you your shorter showers you skipped along a few days it's working the whole region pulls in the same direction it shows up in the numbers and that matters because this basin supplies drinking water to about two million people in both carolinas and think about the shape of it the catawba starts up in the blue ridge mountains runs down through our lakes in the charlotte metro and keeps going into south carolina every town along the river is drinking from the same glass And here's what stage two means behind the scenes.

Duke Energy, which runs the dams, cuts back the water when it releases downstream.

So the lakes hold on to more.

And the public water systems across the basin put mandatory restrictions in place.

That's the whole river tightening its belt at the same time.

No one being singled out and everyone pitching in.

Lake Norman isn't only where we boat.

It's the region's water tank.

And we all share it.

So here's your one action.

Your own water provider sets your restrictions.

Look them up this weekend.