Protecting waterways protects us

RALEIGH -- Last year's withering drought exposed and baked the bottom of Falls Lake as water levels plummeted to record lows. This June, we had flash floods. Shortly after, we were back in another drought, to be rescued, at least temporarily, by tropical storm Ernesto. What's going on?

Sure, "feast or famine" rainfall patterns matter. But how we use our land has a huge effect on the duration and severity of droughts and floods.

When we build on land near creeks, rivers and lakes, we get more floods, because the water can't soak into the ground during storms. It's too busy rushing off of roofs, parking lots and streets into creeks and sewers. It's like pouring a gallon of water onto your kitchen table and expecting it to be absorbed.

Over time, the problem gets even worse because the silt carried by runoff settles out, raising the stream bed. Stream channels are able to hold less water, and they flood sooner.

Increased runoff also magnifies drought conditions. Because fast-flowing rainwater isn't absorbed, groundwater supplies aren't replenished. During periods of little rain there are insufficient stores of water, and mud-cracking drought soon follows.

We are developing land so rapidly in the Triangle that we're overwhelming our natural water cycle. Residential and commercial development continues to race ahead; 27 acres of forests and farms are bulldozed each day in Wake County alone. Frequently, this construction takes place too close to streams and reservoirs. If this poorly managed development continues we will experience more severe flooding and more prolonged droughts.

Floods can cause loss of life as well as wreck local businesses, homes and farms. Droughts can devastate crops, harm wildlife and impinge on our daily activities as reservoirs become perilously low. It is expensive to recover from droughts and floods, especially when they are made worse by land-use patterns.

There's a way to counter the trend, and it will save us money: conserve vulnerable land along rivers, lakes and streams.

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Preserving healthy forested stream banks and wetlands by limiting development there enables storm water to soak into the ground, preventing rapid runoff and recharging groundwater supplies. Through a preventive approach, land conservation offers a common sense solution to soften the blow.

In addition to moderating water quantity, land conservation along stream banks also protects water quality. Forested stream buffers and wetlands filter out pollutants and limit sedimentation. Polluted runoff carrying pesticides, motor oil, fertilizers and silt is the largest contributor to the water pollution that plagues over 3,000 miles of streams in North Carolina, threatening drinking water supplies.

Local land trusts in our region work every day with willing landowners to preserve their land, with positive results for both water quantity and quality. These organizations and governments in the Triangle have joined together to conserve streambanks throughout the Upper Neuse River basin, to ensure that nine separate drinking water supply reservoirs, serving over 500,000 people, maintain high water quality.

The Raleigh City Council and the state Clean Water Management Trust Fund have provided generous startup funding to the Upper Neuse Clean Water Initiative to conserve properties that will have the greatest influence on maintaining water quality and quantity. The land trusts (Eno River Association, Tar River Land Conservancy, Triangle Greenways Council, Triangle Land Conservancy and Trust for Public Land) are already working with landowners who wish to protect their land from development. (www.ctnc.org has contact information on these community-based nonprofit organizations). In our hot real estate market, the purchase of conservation properties or legal preservation agreements on those lands is awfully expensive. There is far more need for conservation funding than there is money currently available. A newly formed state legislative Land and Water Conservation Study Commission holds great promise -- its charge is to explore ways to create a dedicated funding source to expand state conservation funding by up to $1 billion. The commission's recommendations are due Feb. 1.

Through targeted voluntary land conservation, we can provide a moderated and plentiful supply of clean water for drinking and recreation to Triangle residents for years to come. And we can do it with far less expense than if we continue current development patterns that have us alternately teetering on the brink of costly floods and droughts.

(Reid Wilson is executive director of the Conservation Trust for North Carolina.)