Fearing long, hot summer, Pender Co. issues mandatory water restrictions

BURGAW, NC (WWAY) — Pender County residents are facing a mandatory water restriction. Utility officials are trying to replenish their water supply before they hit seriously low levels as the summer goes on.

Pender County Utility Director Michael Mack does not want to scare residents by issuing this mandatory water restriction, but he is asking for their help cutting back on non-essential uses of drinking water.

After a lack of rain and a long holiday weekend, Pender County’s water supply is not where officials want it. Today the Pender County Utilities issued a mandatory water reduction for all customers of the Rocky Point/Topsail Water and Sewer District.

“Mother Nature has not been doing us any favors, and then with the long weekend…,” Mack said. “Pender County has been fortunate to add customers the past couple of years. In fact we picked up 500 in the last few months.”

Now Pender County Utilities is those customers to cut back on their water usage by asking that they do not water their plants and lawns, fill their pools or wash their cars.

“We purchase all of our water we sell from the town of Wallace, so there’s literally a bottleneck in our distribution system,” Mack said. “We can only pull so much water from them.”

The county says it expects a warmer summer than last year. It’s worried that if people don’t keep an eye on their usage now, it could be problem down the road.

As for residents who will have to cut back, many don’t mind it.

“I’m OK with that, because I would rather have a yellow lawn and water in the summer, so I’m OK with water restrictions,” Pender County resident Sally Banks said.

Pender County Utilities did not have a time frame for how long this water restriction could last.

Mack says water restriction or not, people should always be looking for ways to conserve water.