University of Virginia Library

UNC Fights Drought
To Stay In Session

By Tom Jenks

Rumors originating in Chapel
Hill, North Carolina, have spawned
the widely spread belief that the
University of North Carolina will be
forced to close down due to a
severe drought which is seriously
threatening the college's water
supply.

The drought, which began in
early July, has brought North
Carolina's rainfall down to 12
inches below normal for this time
of year and has caused Chapel Hill's
reservoir, University Lake, to drop
94 inches below its normal level.

Spiking Rumors

Consequently, the school has
been forced to cut its water
consumption from five million
gallons a day to 2.72 million
gallons, a volume which might still
be decreased since the water level
of the reservoir is still dropping at
the rate of one inch per day.

According to the rumors,
Chapel Hill was to close at 12 noon
today: however, the school's
newspaper. The Daily Tarheel,
reported that Chancellor J. Carlyle
said. "There are no such
plans. We wouldn't ever consider
closing." William F. Friday.
President of the University of
North Carolina stated simply that
"It will not close." Rumors that the
Tar Heel's football game with
Florida this weekend would be
played in Florida instead of North
Carolina, as scheduled, were also
denied.

Although Chapel Hill is not
presently planning to close down,
the student body has been forced
to make some rather drastic
changes in its daily life.
Fraternities, sororities, and the
school's cafeteria are serving their meals on paper plates and eating
with plastic utensils in order to cut
down on dish washing. Students
have been asked not to shower any
more than is absolutely necessary,
and car-washing has become a
misdemeanor. Extreme
conservation of water is the order
of the day.

No Rain Forecast

Ten inches of rain are needed to
end the drought, but the North
Carolina weather bureau forecasts
that there is a good possibility that
it will not be able to sustain a
sufficient water supply during the
emergency. Only six-tenths of an
inch of rain have fallen since a
critical state of drought was
announced on September 19.

The University of North
Carolina, with the help of the city
of Durham, is now laying a pipeline
from University Lake to the
dormitories at Chapel Hill at the
cost of $175,000.

Pipeline Near Completion

The pipeline, which is to be
completed by October 24, will
bring two million gallons of water a
day onto the campus and hopefully
will alleviate the water shortage to a
large degree. The University of
North Carolina will bear most of
the burden of the cost of the
waterline itself.

Chapel Hill seems to be plagued
with extremely bad luck during this
crisis, as two water mains have
broken during the last week,
unleashing a flow of precious water.
One breakage under the streets of
Chapel Hill proved to be quite
extensive, while the other in the
Morrison Dormitory at 12:30 p.m.
yesterday, was found to be only
minor. Both were repaired with a
minimum of difficulty and without
too serious a loss of water.

Droughts Not Common

Droughts, although not
common in North Carolina, have
occurred twice before in the state's
history, once in the late 1930's and
once in 1956. The first one was
comparatively speaking, not very
serious. The second one, however,
was almost as critical as the present
drought.

President Friday spoke to The
Cavalier Daily over the phone
yesterday and he spoke
optimistically saying, "there are no
apparent signs of drought here at
Chapel Hill. The grass and trees are
still green, and there is still water
flowing from the faucets. I
understand that there is even a
slight chance of rain in the next few
days.

The whole problem is that 1968
has been a dry year for North
Carolina, and October has been a
particularly dry month. I am
confident that with our new
waterline, we will be able to
persevere the drought."

Despite the problems at Chapel
Hill. University students may rest
easy in Charlottesville tonight, for
rain has been forecast to fall within
the next few days, and the
University will remain open.