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0003~~ MINUTES ORANGE COUNTY $OARA OF COMMISSIONERS SPECIAL MEETING DECEMBER 18, 1985 The Orange County Board of Commissioners met in joint session with the ~" Hillsborough Town Board. ~' COMMISSIONERS PRESENT: Chair Don Willhoit, and Commissioners Shirley ~4+~_ Marshall, Moses Carey, Ben Lloyd and Norman Walker. TOWN BOARD MEMBERS PRESENT: Horace Johnson and Remus Smith. Mayor Frank Sheffield made opening remarks. He listed three items for discussion: (1) Availability of water for northern Orange County. - (2) Allocation of State water and sewer funds and the possibila.ty of the town receiving some additional grant funds from Orange County beyond what would otherwise be available. (3) Miscellaneous items including land use planning and telephone service. Don Willhoit expressed his desire that everyone understand the water resources study that was done by the State and provides information on instream flow needs and capacity levels with regard to the long range water supply situation involving OWASA and any impact on growth. WATER RESOURCES Ken Thompson gave an overview of the water resources study and the data base that was used in the report. • Town Board member Horace Johnson pointed out that the report is ,just one opinion. The problem is not as severe as proposed in the report and he suggested that another study be conducted. Don Willhoit pointed out that the report was prepared in cooperation with the State and the instream requirements were provided by the State. Don Cordell indicated that the Division of Water Resources took the 40-year data base that was kept on the Eno River and assumed various rates of withdrawal independent of the source of withdrawal. The levels of Lake Orange were monitored during drought periods which gave a statistical pattern as to how much of the lake would be drawn down in any given summer. The conclusion was that every other year the County could run out of water. He stated that it is the opinion of Hazen and Sawyer that northern Orange County is facing a short term crisis over the next several years and that any amount of growth will severely tax the available resources. The average yield for Lake Orange is 2.2MGD. He stated that full benefits are not being derived from Lake Ben Johnson and Corporation Lake because the lakes are being kept full. He explained that a 20-year return on a safe yield means that if you get 2MGD, there is a statistical probability that one year out of 20 the river plus the stored water will not be sufficient volume to provide that yield. To establish yield, the volume of the lake and the historical strength load levels are used to predict what the inflow of the lake wi]1 be, and by doing a mass balance determine if the water going out is more than that going in. Tf so, the difference must come from storage. The problem is that with a limited amount of storage, the outflow can only exceed inflow by some