Georgetown Feels Water Crunch
By Kelly Marshall Fuller, The Sun News, Myrtle Beach, S.C.
Aug. 30–Emergency dredging started Wednesday to increase water flow to the International Paper Co. canal because low water levels in the Pee Dee River are interfering with getting enough liquid to run the Georgetown plant.
Meanwhile, the city of Georgetown plans to put voluntary water-saving measures in place at a special meeting tonight.
It is the first time since 2002 that the city has had to use special regulations to deal with a water shortage in Georgetown, City Administrator Steve Thomas said.
"We issue the [drought response] proclamation and start the education process," Thomas said. "The goal is to achieve reduction of about 20 percent in residential water usage, and have a 15 percent decrease in other usages."
City residents are asked to reduce their individual water usage, Thomas said.
This includes voluntary restrictions on washing cars, hosing sidewalks and flushing gutters in Georgetown.
"The irrigation system at Georgetown City Hall is already off," Thomas said. "We won’t be flushing out fire hydrants."
The city of Georgetown uses two to three million gallons of water a day to service customers. The water is drawn from the IP Canal.
IP uses about 30 million gallons a day to run operations at the Georgetown plant.
The dredging near the Pee Dee River should continue for the next several days, said IP spokeswoman Suzanne Anderson.
"At this point, we’re doing some dredging on the canal to improve the water flow," Anderson said. "It’s being done due to the fact that the water flow in the canal has not been what we anticipated it to be."
Other parts of Horry and Georgetown counties are also feeling the impact of low water levels in the Pee Dee and Waccamaw Rivers.
Supplemental wells are now in operation on Waccamaw Neck, said Larry Dickerson, assistant director of Georgetown County Water and Sewer District.
The wells are used when there is a low water flow into the Waccamaw River, he said.
"It’s certainly not normal operating conditions to rely on the backup wells," Dickerson said. "As soon as we can get good water out of the Waccamaw River, we’ll turn off the wells."
An aquifer storage and recovery well is also in use, Dickerson said.
The reserve well serves as a giant storage tank of excess surface water.
County customers are also being asked to conserve water. Mandatory water restrictions are not yet in place.
"I don’t think we’re going have to look at any mandatory water reductions, but we encourage our customers to conserve all they can," Dickerson said.
Grand Strand Water & Sewer Authority has supplied some water to Georgetown County Water & Sewer District, said Director Fred Richardson.
He said there is not a water shortage issue in Horry County.
"In the last week or so, we’ve had a little bit more rain, which has helped us with the irrigation demands," Richardson said.
"We broke records for water usage around the Fourth of July. We used 70 million gallons a day. Normal usage in the wintertime is around 35 million gallons a day."
Recent rainfall has not been enough to relieve moderate to severe drought conditions in Horry and Georgetown counties or Brunswick County, N.C.
Georgetown, Williamsburg and Marion counties remain in the moderate drought stage, but severe drought remains in portions of Brunswick and New Hanover counties, said Michael Caropolo, a forecaster with the National Weather Service in Wilmington, N.C.
Showers and scattered thunderstorms left less than an inch of rain Sunday and Monday across the Carolinas and did little to ease the bite of local rainfall deficits.
A tropical wave formed this week over the eastern Atlantic, he said. The unnamed system is not expected to bring any significant rainfall in the next two weeks.
In Horry and Georgetown counties, the rainfall total for the year is 22.03 inches, which leaves the area with a deficit of 7 inches, he said.
In parts of North Carolina, the rainfall deficit remains around 16 inches.
Contact KELLY MARSHALL FULLER at 357-9187 or kfuller@thesunnews.com.
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