{"id":594127,"date":"2026-04-19T18:35:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-19T18:35:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/594127\/"},"modified":"2026-04-19T18:35:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-19T18:35:11","slug":"boaters-may-feel-the-impacts-of-duke-energys-drought-advisory-heres-what-to-expect","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/594127\/","title":{"rendered":"Boaters may feel the impacts of Duke Energy\u2019s drought advisory: Here\u2019s what to expect"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"text | article-text\">CHARLOTTE, N.C. (WBTV) &#8211; Duke Energy is taking steps to conserve water usage for its hydro-electric plants as the<a href=\"https:\/\/www.wbtv.com\/2026\/04\/10\/extreme-drought-carolinas-persist-expand-over-next-few-weeks-least\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.wbtv.com\/2026\/04\/10\/extreme-drought-carolinas-persist-expand-over-next-few-weeks-least\/\"> ongoing drought worsens<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Duke Energy has elevated its drought advisory to a Stage One, with the worst possible level being a Stage Four Emergency. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">In response to the drought advisory, the utility company will decrease the water flow through its hydro-electric plants to conserve water. That means water levels in places like the Catawba River may drop and impact boating.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Read related &#8211;&gt; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wbtv.com\/2026\/04\/16\/82-counties-north-carolina-declared-natural-disaster-areas-by-us-government\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.wbtv.com\/2026\/04\/16\/82-counties-north-carolina-declared-natural-disaster-areas-by-us-government\/\">82 counties in North Carolina declared \u2018natural disaster areas\u2019 by US government<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cWe have a shared goal to make sure that water is managed and that there\u2019s an adequate supply for everybody so it\u2019s very important to protect the basin,\u201d said Logan Stewart, a spokesperson for Duke Energy.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Stewart shared that the drought is impacting the 11 bodies of water in the Catawba Wateree River Basin used by the utility company for electricity production.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cFor those that go out on the lake that could be slowing recreational flows. While I know that\u2019s not great news for boaters and others. it\u2019s just really important in a time like this that we are making sure we\u2019re taking the necessary steps to protect that water resource,\u201d said Stewart.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">This change does not impact anyone\u2019s power at home for now.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">If the drought gets worse and water levels drop to unsafe depths, Duke Energy will close boat ramps accordingly.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Read more &#8211;&gt; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wbtv.com\/2026\/04\/18\/gastonia-urges-voluntary-water-conservation-after-stage-1-drought-declared-what-this-means\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.wbtv.com\/2026\/04\/18\/gastonia-urges-voluntary-water-conservation-after-stage-1-drought-declared-what-this-means\/\">Gastonia urges voluntary water conservation after Stage 1 drought declared: What this means<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Copyright 2026 WBTV. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CHARLOTTE, N.C. (WBTV) &#8211; Duke Energy is taking steps to conserve water usage for its hydro-electric plants as&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":594128,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[16179,258651,15229,258989,192,123535,22884,258652,2256,42688,79],"class_list":{"0":"post-594127","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-boat","9":"tag-catawba","10":"tag-drought","11":"tag-duke-energy","12":"tag-environment","13":"tag-gastonia","14":"tag-lake-norman","15":"tag-lake-wylie","16":"tag-north-carolina","17":"tag-rainfall","18":"tag-science"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/594127","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=594127"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/594127\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/594128"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=594127"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=594127"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=594127"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}