Set sprinklers to water the lawn or garden only - not the street or sidewalk.
Use the microwave to cook small meals. (It uses less power than an oven.)
Purchase "Green Power" for your home's electricity. (Contact your power supplier to see where and if it is available.)
Scrape, rather than rinse, dishes before loading into the dishwasher; wash only full loads.
Cut back on air conditioning and heating use if you can.
Turn off appliances and lights when you leave the room.
Industry says water restrictions are unfair HUNTERSVILLE, N.C. – Employees of one industry in particular say they feel targeted by drought-imposed water restrictions and they’re now calling for more equal treatment.
The soda bottling industry, cement mixing, and even the health care industry all rely greatly on water. But people working in the landscaping industry say they’re the only ones who have to deal with strict mandatory water conservation regulations – and it’s destroying their business.
At Metrolina Landscaping, employees have been practicing water conservation for more than a decade.
“Our industry is shut down when we don’t have any water,” said owner Joe Garmon.
And now with mandatory Stage 3 water restrictions in place, employees there say their sales have plummeted some 30 to 40 percent, leaving their parking lot deserted. The same holds true for other companies.
“Lowe’s, they had just recently laid me off due to the drought,” explains father Steve Lowe. He is trying to find more work after his recent layoff to support his newborn son, but he says no one seems to be hiring.
“I really would like to stay in this line of work but it’s really not working out for me,” Lowe said.
The worst of it, according to the employees at Metrolina Landscaping, is that their industry is the only one facing mandatory water restrictions.
“It is also illegal for us to transport water over county lines from one county to the next,” said Garmon, while his brother David adds, “Other industries in the area can buy their water in the county and transport their product anywhere they want to.”
A spokesperson for Charlotte-Mecklenburg Utilities says they are not targeting industries. They just see plant watering as discretionary water use. She added that it would not be responsible to allow water from Mecklenburg County to be used when watering plants in other counties.
Now the landscapers, lawn care workers, and nursery owners are joining forces to open the eyes of city leaders and change the laws so that everyone is treated equally when in comes to water restrictions.
“We don’t want all the water, we want to be fair, we want to be treated fair,” said David Garmon.
About 200 employees of landscaping, lawn care, and nursery companies are expected to attend a meeting in Huntersville this Thursday.
Organizers hope it will be enough to save their businesses.
