Orange County NC Website
i <br />_ -:4 <br />PAGE 7 <br />County may establish a monitoring system that would be administered by the Health <br />Department and paid for by the water providers. The Division is willing to talk with <br />Orange County about administering their own program. ~ <br />The lack of communication between the Division and Orange County and the _ _. <br />importance of public relations was discussed. Mouberry indicated he was willing to <br />discuss this subject further and stated that comments from governmental entities would be <br />encouraged. <br />Mouberry stated that at the present time the Division is very active in watershed <br />planning. They have enacted several different classifications that allow local units of <br />government to identify watersheds and develop added protection for those watersheds. They <br />are considering limiting the type of activities that go on in a WSI watershed. At the <br />present time, there is no provision to basically prohibit any type of. sludge <br />disposal/waste disposal options in any watershed except direct discharges in WSI <br />watershed. The permit issued by EMD is a non-discharge permit which implies that what is <br />placed on the property does not migrate off site. The material that is land applied on <br />WSI watershed if properly operated and maintained would not leave the property on which it <br />is applied and not have an opportunity to get into the receiving stream oz the water <br />supply reservoir. <br />He emphasized that if a local unit of government comes up with more restrictive <br />requirements, the permittee wi-'_1 be required to abide.by those requirements. It is the <br />Board's prerogative to prohibit sludge in certain watersheds or certain zoning <br />classifications. If the County wants surface water monitoring to be required, DEM could <br />include this in the permit with the understanding that if surface water monitoring did not <br />show any impact that the monitoring frequency would be reduced as time passes to reduce <br />the economic impact an the permittee. Commissioner Halkiotis stressed that he wanted the <br />monitoring to be conducted by a County employee and not the permittee. <br />Terry Rolen, Director of Utilities for the City of Durham, told Commissioner <br />Hartwell that the City would consider granting permission for those who clean <br />septic tanks in Orange County to bring the material to the Durham waste treatment plant <br />rather than to OWASA. He stressed that his intent had been far the process to be very <br />open and that Orange County should have been contacted when the decision was made to apply <br />sludge on lands in Orange County. Durham County needs about 2,000 acres to handle all <br />their sludge. They would like 4,000 acres which would give them a buffer, They are <br />interested in preserving fart land in the watershed areas. This program will benefit the <br />farmer and should help to keep them in business and preserve the land. Durham does not <br />have a longterm plan for sludge. They are doing a study to determine the best disposal <br />option for Durham. The outcome could be land application or designated landfill, <br />composing, etc. At the present time land application is just an interim plan. He asked <br />the Board's support of their program. He offered to do extra monitoring if necessary. <br />Gommissioner Hartwell stated that Hillsborough's sludge truck does leak sludge on <br />the roadbed. Mouberry stated that DEM would investigate the complaint. <br />An Orange County farmer spoke in support of the sludge application program. He <br />has been in the program for eight years. <br />3. HILLSBOROUGH COOPERATIVE PLANNING <br />Marvin Collins made the presentation. He referred to the resolution that the two. <br />governing boards considered an August 21 which establishes procedures for developing an <br />Orange County-Town of Hillsborough Cooperative Planning Agreement. .The first four steps <br />identify the area of interest -- the cooperative planning zone. On October 5, the <br />Hillsborough and Orange County planning Boards met to begin the process of defining the <br />boundaries of the Cooperative Planning Zone and Transition Areas. The CPZ boundary <br />identified by the Hillsborough Planning Board generally included the Town's 50-year sewex <br />service area plus the Seven-Mile Creek Watershed and the Upper Eno Watershed up to the <br />