The first reading for ordinance amending an existing ordinance relating to water shortage advisories, alerts, and emergencies was recently heard and passed at a Morehead City Council meeting.
Holly McGrath-Rosas, General Manager of the Morehead Utility Plant Board, said water shortage plans were mandated across the state in 1996 to address drought conditions. She said that while the current plan does do this, it doesn’t fully encompass what a water shortage could look like.
“What it doesn’t address is emergencies. So, water emergencies such as, you have 100,000 gallons of petroleum spill into Cave Run Lake. That’s our water source. What do we do, how do we start advising this?” said McGrath-Rosas.
She said the new ordinance sets up parameters for how her organization and local government would respond to various water emergencies.
“So, this is just incorporating those emergency situations, because when you say a water shortage plan, it doesn’t encompass everything if it’s just tailored to drought,” said McGrath-Rosas.
McGrath-Rosas said there are many who rely on the water produced by her organization for various purposes, including industry, local residents, and neighboring communities who buy water.
With the new plan, she would initially act in an emergency, before gathering the board to vote on which phase of emergency they are in. This would then allow her organization and local government to work to solve or mitigate the issue.
McGrath-Rosas said she hopes to never have to use the plan outlined in the ordinance but says it’s ultimately better to have it and not need it than be left high and dry in an emergency.