In response to drought conditions throughout much of the southeast during the 2006-2009 timeframe many jurisdictions throughout the state faced enormous pressures to restrict use of public water resources.  The City of Hendersonville formed a task force in late 2009 focused on revising the City’s water shortage and conservation ordinance.  The task force and City Council have approved a revised Water Shortage Response Plan that allows the City to conserve in a drought situation with minimal impact to businesses that rely on water.

The plan authorizes the city manager to enforce certain water restrictions in the event of a drought.  The approved policy effectively handles drought occurrences while avoiding large scale impacts to many of our community’s economic drivers, including manufacturing operations.  The City Council went through great efforts to identify both essential and non-essential uses of the water supply.  Included in the essential uses of water are industrial uses such as the water necessary for production and amounts required to sustain essential cooling operations.  

The inclusion of the industrial community in this policy goes far to ensure that in the likelihood that drought conditions develop, the City of Hendersonville has an established policy that limits the impact by-in-large to non-essential uses not critical to the economic vitality of the community.