BASIN 18 YADKIN-PEE DEE BASIN DESCRIPTION The Yadkin-Pee Dee Basin is the northern portion of a large river system that drains central North Carolina and northeastern South Carolina. The basin is divided into four sub-basins. The headwaters of the Yadkin River drain the eastern slope of the Blue Ridge Mountains, northeast of Blowing Rock. In the upper part of the basin the Yadkin flows generally northeasterly for about 100 miles before turning south. It continues flowing southeasterly and merges with the Uwharrie River east of Albemarle, NC, to form the Pee Dee River. The Rocky River flows into the mainstem below Lake Tillery. The Pee Dee continues flowing southeastward through Local Water Supply Plans (LWSPs) South Carolina, where it is known as the Great Pee Dee River, All units of local government that supply or plan to and flows into the Atlantic Ocean near Georgetown, SC. supply water to the public are required to develop a LWSP. There are series of impoundments on the river in The Division of Water Resources (DWR) reviews LWSPs and North Carolina, beginning with W. Kerr Scott Lake west of maintains a database of the LWSP information. The current Wilkesboro. The mainstem is impounded for about 50 miles database reflects water use information for 1992. by a chain of lakes consisting of High Rock Lake, Tuckertown LWSPs were submitted by 74 public water systems Reservoir, Badin Lake, and Lake Tillery. The South Yadkin having service area in this basin or using water from this basin. River drains 909 square miles north and west of Salisbury. It These systems supplied 236 mgd of water to 1,311,123 flows into the Yadkin above High Rock Lake. The Uwharrie persons. DWR estimated that 764,721of the 1,311,123 persons River drains 374 square miles west of Asheboro. The served by these 74 LWSP systems receive water from the Uwharrie joins the Yadkin below Badin Lake and the river Yadkin Basin. Of the 236 mgd supplied by these 74 LWSP flows into Lake Tillery as the Pee Dee River. The Rocky River systems, 152 mgd comes from water sources in the Yadkin drains 1440 square miles south of Kannapolis between Basin, with the remainder coming from adjoining basins. The Charlotte and Albemarle. It flows into the Pee Dee where following table summarizes the LWSP population served with Richmond and Stanly counties meet. Below Lake Tillery there water from this basin and their water use for 1992. is one more major impoundment, Blewett Falls Lake, before the Pee Dee flows into South Carolina. 1992 LWSP System Water Use from Basin (mgd) LWSP Residential Non-residential Total Sub-basin WATER USE Population Use Use Use* Factors Affecting Water Demand Yadkin River 560,246 34.11 54.44 111.7 This basin is home to about 17% of the State’s So. Yadkin 55,924 4.51 3.14 9.6 residents and contains all or part of 86 municipalities in 23 Uwharrie R. 21,064 1.12 2.94 4.7 counties. Three of the state’s 12 major metropolitan areas Rocky River 127,487 7.76 12.82 25.9 depend on this basin for water supply. From 1990 to 1997 Total 764,721 47.50 73.3 151.9 year-round population in 13 counties in this basin grew by *Total Use also includes unaccounted-for water and sales to other systems. 10% or more. One county, Union, grew by 26% over that period. This basin supplies water to the rapidly growing Residential use accounted for 31% of total water use Piedmont Crescent, a corridor of urban development roughly in these systems while non-residential use accounted for 48% following I40 and I85 from Raleigh to Charlotte. and unaccounted-for water use represented 8%. The Yadkin Basin supplies water to some of the Total Water Use in Basin State’s fastest growing areas. LWSP systems expect to supply The USGS’s 1995 summary of water use estimated water to 2,112,020 million persons by the year 2020, a 61% total water use in the basin at 306 million gallons per day increase over 1992 levels. Their demand is projected to (mgd), with almost 80% coming from surface water sources. increase 89%, from 236 mgd to 445 mgd, by 2020. USGS estimated total basin population at 1,251,240. In the 1992 LWSPs, 13 of the 67 systems using water Residential water demand was estimated at 76 mgd with about from this basin reported that available supply was not adequate 70% of this demand being supplied by public water systems. to meet estimated demand through 2002. Overall, public water systems supplied 146 mgd from surface DWR encourages systems to begin planning to water and 6 mgd from ground water for both residential and manage and meet future water demands before average daily non-residential uses. The remaining residential water demand water use reaches 80% of a system’s available supply. Data for was met by 22 mgd of self-supplied ground water. In addition, 1992 indicated that 12 of the 74 LWSP systems in this basin there was about 130 mgd of self-supplied water withdrawn for had an average demand above this threshold. By 2020, 23 non-residential water uses. systems project demand levels that will exceed 80% of their available supply. INTERBASIN TRANSFERS OF SURFACE WATER Self-supplied Use Across the state many water systems move surface The USGS estimated that self-supplied users, water between sub-basins to meet their needs. The table below excluding power generating facilities, accounted for 152 mgd indicates the number of potential interbasin transfers associated of the 306 mgd total of water used from this basin, as shown with this basin. in the table below. Industrial use accounted for 46% of the Potential Interbasin Transfers based on 1992 data self-supplied uses, followed by livestock (21%), irrigation Sub-basin Number mgd OUT mgd IN (17%), domestic (15%), and commercial (1%) uses. Yadkin River 34 13.119 4.279 So. Yadkin 13 1.337 0 USGS Estimated Self-supplied Water Use in mgd Uwharrie R. 6 4.626 0 Sub-basin Domestic Livestock Industrial Commercial Irrigation Total Rocky River 15 2.595 18.96 Yadkin River 13.00 20.94 39.36 0.67 19.31 93.3 The Yadkin basin is one of the most affected basins in So. Yadkin 0.06 3.47 5.49 0.08 2.77 11.9 terms of the number of transfer and the amount of surface water Uwharrie R. ** ** ** ** ** ** transferred. Over 13 mgd of water was transferred out of the Rocky River 9.34 7.29 25.88 0.23 4.43 47.2 Yadkin sub-basin, and nearly 20 mgd of water was transferred Basin Total 22.4 31.7 70.7 1.0 26.5 152.3 into the Rocky River sub-basin in 1992. As water use and ** included in Yadkin River figures transfer amounts increase, some water systems in the basin will eventually need to obtain interbasin transfer certifications. The Registered Water Withdrawals 1997 LWSPs will better document these transfers. Before 1999, anyone withdrawing 1.0 mgd or more of SUMMARY OF INFORMATION FROM 1992LWSPs surface or ground water was required to registered that !Per capita water use in gallons per day: withdrawal with DWR. In this basin there are 44 registered Sub-basin 1992 2010 withdrawals other than LWSP systems or power generating Yadkin River 213 235 facilities, with the cumulative capacity to withdraw 67 mgd. So. Yadkin 212 209 All of these registered withdrawals are for surface water. In Uwharrie R. 114 141 1999, the registration threshold for all water uses except Rocky River 165 196 agriculture was lowered to 100,000 gallons per day. March 1, 2000 is the deadline for registering 1999 withdrawals. !17systems are not connected to another water supply system !28 systems rely on purchase water as their sole supply. WATER AVAILABILITY Surface water is the primary source of water for most !Many plans are not compatible due to discrepancies with of the residents of the basin. LWSPs indicate that 32 water interconnection data. systems in these sub-basins withdraw about 144 mgd of !These systems used 144 mgd of surface water and about only surface water. Seventeen of these systems rely on reservoirs 8 mgd of ground water. for all or part of their water supply. The combined demand on these reservoirs averaged about 71 mgd in 1992. The !The reported raw water supply was 1555 mgd of surface water estimated available supply from these reservoirs, based on the and a 12-hour groundwater supply of 1.4 mgd. 20-year safe yield reported in local water supply plans, is 181 !There 9 county-wide systems. mgd. Nineteen of the surface water systems submitting !18 systems were planning new supplies in the 1992 LWSPs. local water supply plans have run-of-river intakes. These !The systems are projecting significant growth, 61% in intakes supplied about 72 mgd of water in 1992. The available population and 89% in demand, by 2020. supply from these intakes, based on information reported in local water supply plans, is about 1411 mgd. !About 12 mgd of additional water supply will be needed by The abundant surface water supplies in this basin are water systems to ensure that water demands in 2010 do not exceed 80% of available supply (about 4 mgd in the Rocky due in part to the storage and releases from the impoundments River sub-basin and about 8 mgd Yadkin sub-basin). along the Yadkin River. For instance, Winston-Salem has 10,800 million gallons of storage in Kerr Scott Reservoir for !Demand-to-Supply Ratios for 1992 and 2010: use as water supply.