Wise water courses

More people moving to North Carolina means more water usage in homes, businesses and industrial plants. North Carolina is, after all, sixth in growth rate in the United States, and water demand is expected to increase 35 percent by 2030, to 2.2 billion gallons a day. Those are clear, and worrisome, facts that local and state policymakers must face regarding the adequacy of water supplies.

It's a bleak outlook, but it doesn't have to be. Forethought and actions taken now would make the difference. Duke University's Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions provided a forum for that recently with a conference in Raleigh to discuss maintaining the state's abundant clean water supplies.

State and national authorities on the subject were able to discuss setting priorities and conservation. Cities and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers generally build water reservoirs in this state. But governments at every level play a role in protecting water quality, through the use of regulations and zoning laws.

For example, the state and particularly urban regions began improving buffer-zone rules around lakes and along streams in the 1980s and '90s. Vegetative buffers filter pollution from stormwater runoff before it reaches water sources. Naysayers who complained of government overreaching now find themselves, well, drinking their words. Those rules have meant cleaner water across the state.

Still, at least 10 percent of the state's 38,000 miles of streams are polluted. Development has eaten up 2.1 million acres of urban forestland since the 1960s. Its disappearance means that underground water supplies are filtered less thoroughly and thus at risk of reduced quality. The loss of open space is a trend that perhaps can be slowed but isn't likely to be stopped.

To its credit, the state closely monitors water quality, and strictly regulates transfers between river basins. Communities from mountains to the sea also have suffered through severe droughts in recent years. Lessons about wise use of water resources are there to be learned -- and we hardly have a choice.