RALEIGH, N.C. — The City Council in Raleigh, N.C. has agreed to fund a study of the possibility of pulling drinking water from Falls Lake, according to WRAL News.
The Council fears the city’s demand for drinking water will strip its current supply by 2040 so they want to see if it’s possible to use water from the lake in the future.
The $450,000 study will determine if the water in the water quality storage pool can be safely shifted to the water supply storage pool, noted the article.
The city currently pulls 50 million gallons a day from Falls Lake and another 11 million from Lake Benson, but future growth could force them to double the available water supply.
Falls Lake is also the primary source of drinking water for several other cities surrounding Raleigh.
"It takes so long to construct and permit (water facilities), so you plan in decades, not years," said Kenny Waldroup, Raleigh's assistant public utilities director.
Read the entire article here.