Projected Water Demand Proven False

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Study the data in this chart you will begin to see that Greensboro's citizens were sold a bill of goods on the Randleman Dam. City managers and officials lied to get what they wanted.The Randleman Dam is Greensboro's biggest scam to date and ripe for investigation. All other sundry Greensboro scandals like Project Homestead and the Police Department pale in comparison to the fraudulent and unnecessary push for the Randleman Dam.

FACT: My cancer colleagues in the US take one look at this chart and immediately they smell the rat. Why can't Greensboro's local media smell it? What part of "decline" does the media not understand? If you were a reporter wouldn't you want to confirm these numbers with city officials? And once confirmed, wouldn't you want to do a story about Greensboro's ineptitude for predicting its future water needs?

Greensboro's hidden agenda was GROWTH at any cost. It believed that if it could furnish an unlimited supply of water it could recruit industries from the northern US. But its officials knew the ratepayers would never fund such a costly and risky investment so they had to make it look like Greensboro was running out of water. If you know anything about Greensboro, you know GROWTH is its obsession. Would certain Greensboro managers and officials defraud the public to get an entirely new water supply? Absolutely!

In the late 90's anyone with an ear to the ground knew that US manufacturing was closing shop and moving to Asia. The new economy that would soon replace manufacturing would be far less water intensive but Greensboro's officials continued their push for the Randleman Dam.

Now the Randleman Dam is complete and the Randleman Reservoir is full. Unfortunately, the furniture factories and the textile mills have closed shop and no longer use (purchase) Greensboro water & sewer services. The result--Greensboro's reservoirs now have a surplus of water! Let me express this another way: Greensboro's three reservoirs are larger now than they were in 1995! In addition, Greensboro now has more elevated storage tanks and more horsepower to store and deliver additional water.

And last but not least, huge price increases ratepayers have been dealt for lawn-watering will further protect reservoir levels. In the late 90's during peak demand Greensboro pushed out 50+ million gallons a day for several days in a row--for lawns. I don't think those record numbers will ever be reached again. Lawn-watering customers are now paying dearly for the privilege. The hefty price increase for irrigation water is restricting the practice---leaving more water in the reservoirs for everyone else to use.

So why didn't Greensboro sock it to the pocketbooks of lawn-waters in the 90's? By now you should be catching on.

The only unfinished business is paying for the Randleman Dam through water rate increases. The higher water rates must also fund an expanded waterworks infrastructure because water sales are the same as they were in 1995 ----when officials claimed Greensboro was running out of water!

If this dam story gains momentum, be prepared for City Officials to vigorously defend themselves and claim that Greensboro still needs water ----as evidenced by the drought. They lied all the way to Randleman, and you can bet your silly rain barrel they will lie again to avoid being implicated in this fraud.

FACT: Randleman Reservoir will be empty during a drought! It is only full right now because none of its six Regional Partners draw water from it. (An explanation for distant readers) They can't. PTRWA build a dam and an enormous reservoir with no connections and no water treatment plant. DUH. Randleman Reservoir is full of raw water with no place to go but downstream.

And what are those farming families who were driven off their ancestor's now submerged land doing for work?---probably stacking shelves at WAL-MART or delivering pizzas. How sad for them that the ends justified the means for dishonest Greensboro managers and officials. They should put a class-action lawsuit together and collect millions from Greensboro for its municipal fraud and the disruption of their livelihoods.

FACT: The regional drought is currently benefiting Greensboro's dam scam by concealing Greensboro's water surplus. That's right---a water surplus.

You can bank on the Dam Scammers to continue their dishonest push to connect to Randleman during this drought. Don't fall for that trick because in a drought Randleman Reservoir will be EMPTY. Their deceit just goes on and on. Here's an idea!--Greensboro should try Water Conservation!

FACT: Once this drought is over Greensboro will quickly get back to doing what it does best----selling water.

FACT: Currently Greensboro is suffering a huge revenue shortfall because water and sewer sales are far below what the Water Director projected.

Are you still wondering why there are no water pipelines connected to the completed Randleman Reservoir? At least the City of High Point has come clean. It now claims it does not need Randleman Reservoir and it won't for a very long time--like perhaps for decades. And as long as we are being honest here, if gasoline goes to $4.00+ a gallon, what will the effect of a recession be on water demand?

Thank you for reading! You may write to me at mikejbaron@triad.rr.com