Strolling through one of the greenhouses at her Alabaster nursery, Carole Barton can’t help but smile at the rainbow of begonias and marigolds that fills the building with color. She smiles because, in a few days, these plants will take their spectacular show on the road when they are sold to landscape contractors and garden shops throughout the Birmingham area.Last fall, however, the sight of 7,000 flats of colorful pansies was almost more than Carole could bear. That’s because, unlike this summer’s crop, her pansies were bound not for loving homes and suburban gardens, but rather the compost heap.The reason: Birmingham’s water ban.Like greenhouses, nurseries and landscape contractors throughout the Southeast, Carole and Alan Barton lost thousands of dollars when the Birmingham Water Works and Sewer Board (BWWSB) categorically banned all outdoor watering on Sept. 22.”We couldn’t ship to people who had placed orders in June, July and August because they had no way to water,” Carole recalled. “We were able to mitigate the initial impact because we were able to service our out-of-region customers first. But at some point, all that finished up, and we still had plants. We had about $100,000 in lost sales by the end of the season.””It was probably more expensive than the blizzard of 1993 when five greenhouses caved in under the snow load,” Alan added.Billy Angell, who owns Oak Street Garden Shop in Crestline, said the water ban turned what should have been a profitable season into a marketing disaster.”October is our third most profitable month. It’s behind only April and May. So when the water ban went into effect, it came at a terrible time,” Angell said. “It cut our October sales by about 50 percent. Instead of being a month where we made a good profit, it was actually a month where we had a loss.”Angell and the Bartons were not alone. Growers, retailers and landscape contractors as far away as Mobile were burned by the BWWSB ordinance. While restaurants, manufacturers and other businesses continued to use water freely, the green industry watched helplessly as their markets dried up. As one green industry spokesman said, “We were a small part of the problem and 100 percent of the solution.”Based on a survey of about 40 green industry businesses, Barton said retail sales last fall were down from 30-80 percent, and many landscape contractors cancelled work and laid off employees. Meanwhile, a nursery in Huntsville–which had less rain than Birmingham–reported having its best fall ever.Realizing the need for a common-sense solution to water conservation in Birmingham, greenhouse owners, nurserymen, landscape companies, public gardens and homeowners formed the Birmingham Green Industry Alliance (BGIA). Their mission: To work with the BWWSB to develop a drought plan that would ensure all businesses and individuals have water.Modeled after plans in other Southeast cities–which were just as dry as Birmingham but somehow managed to keep the water flowing–the plan was submitted to the BWWSB on Feb. 9. When the BWWSB unveiled its proposed ordinance this spring, however, it seemed to ignore the recommendations of Alabama’s third-largest agricultural industry. The BWWSB’s four-stage plan focused on voluntary conservation measures during the first two stages with surcharges for undefined excessive use. Subsequent stages, like the water ban, restricted outdoor watering while doing little to curb other water uses.The BWWSB plan also did nothing to increase the capacity of Lake Purdy, Birmingham’s primary southern reservoir, nor did it provide any suggestions for capturing abundant spring rains that are lost when Lake Purdy reaches its capacity.Like the green industry, many cities south of Red Mountain, which rely on the BWWSB for their water, were disappointed. Although Mountain Brook, Vestavia, Hoover and Homewood are some of the fastest growing cities in the metro area, they have no voice on the BWWSB. As a result, some now are considering drafting their own water ordinances that are not based on the BWWSB recommendations. They also have met with the BGIA and, so far, seem receptive to the group’s recommendations.That’s good news for growers like David Wright of Dallas County.”Probably at least 70 percent of what we sell is in the Birmingham area,” said Wright, who serves on the Alabama Farmers Federation’s State Greenhouse, Nursery and Sod Committee. “I threw away more pansies last fall than I’ve ever thrown away. We have a product that essentially has a three-week shelf life. It’s not a product we can put on a shelf and sell when they decide to turn the water back on. The bottom line is, our industry can survive with water restrictions, but we cannot live with a water ban.”David Bradford, a former Extension System district agent and horticulturist with Landscape Services Inc., said last year’s water ban was a wake-up call for many people in the green industry.”It pretty much put a stop to our landscape business. In my mind it made us all realize how important water is for our businesses,” he said. “We’ve been taking for granted that we’ll always have water because Alabama is a state with a lot of water resources. We are learning from talking to people in other parts of the country that the ability to water is a valuable thing to have.”