When drought conditions reached their worst level months ago, we started hearing reports that City X had only Y number of days of water left. That number Y changed from week to week, suggesting that City X would eventually have no water left.
But a Durham reader of the News & Observer asks today the important question that media accounts did not address:
You report regularly on how many days of water we have left in each of
the counties in the Triangle. But it would be helpful to put those
numbers in context. For example, I saw today that Durham now has
something like 350 days of water available. But I have no idea how many
days we would have available in a non-drought period. [Emphasis added.]
By omitting the context, the statistics offer little useful information. With caveats, the N&O explains today that the Cary/Apex/Morrisville/RTP South and Durham water systems have more water now than they would expect with full reservoirs. Orange and Water and Sewer Authority and the Raleigh system have less than full reservoirs, but each has a supply that would last for months.
What the statistics ignore completely is the likelihood that a dwindling water supply would change behavior. This would certainly be true if those who run local water systems would take steps to put market principles in place.
