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ORANGE COUNTY <br />BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS <br />ACTION AGENDA ITEM ABSTRACT <br />Meeting Date: <br />Action Agenda <br />Item # ~~ <br />SUBJECT: Upper Neuse River Basin Association funding <br />DEPARTMENT: County Manager <br />ATTACHMENT(S): <br />Letter (with attachments) from Tom Fetzer, <br />Mayor of Raleigh, to Margaret Brown, Chair <br />Orange County BOCC <br />PUBLIC HEARING: Yes No <br />BUDGET AMENDMENT: Yes No <br />INFORMATION CONTACT: <br />County Engineer Extension 2303 <br />TELEPHONE NUMBERS: <br />Hillsborough - 732-8181 <br />Durham - 688-7331 <br />Mebane - 227-2031 <br />Chapel Hill - 967-9251/968-4501 <br />PURPOSE: To present to the BOCC a request to provide $7,609 in support of Upper Neuse River <br />Basin Association activities (hiring a full time staff support position and miscellaneous <br />activities) for Fiscal Year 1998-99. <br />BACKGROUND: In March 1996, fourteen of the municipalities and counties having planning and <br />zoning jurisdiction in the upper Neuse River basin (the area upstream of the Falls <br />Lake Dam) formed the Upper Neuse River Basin Association (UNRBA). The <br />purpose of the URNBA has been and remains to represent the interests of this area's <br />local governments in the legislative and regulatory process of establishing the <br />statutory rules, standards, strategies and goals intended to improve instream water <br />quality (nutrient management/reduction) in both the estuarine and upstream areas of <br />the Neuse River. To date, the UNRBA has provided: 1) extensive comments to the <br />state in conjunction with the nutrient reduction program rule making process; 2) a <br />review and evaluation of local and state sedimentation and erosion control <br />procedures; 3) assistance with the process of acquiring NC Clean Water Management <br />Trust Fund grants for purchase and creation of riparian buffer areas; and 4) a medium <br />for the acquisition, evaluation and dissemination of water resources information and <br />for the coordination of water resource protection activities. <br />Much of the past and projected activities of the UNRBA are not and will not be <br />applicable or of assistance to Orange County. That is, Orange County is not directly <br />concerned with the rules or cost of implementing those rules severely limiting the <br />nitrogen (nutrient) discharges of wastewater treatment facilities. Likewise, the <br />