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high thresholds. He recognized Budget Director Donna Dean and the two Budget Analysts Rooney Mestos, and Paul Laughton. Chair Brown presented this award to Donna Dean. b. State of the Environment 2002 The Board received a special presentation from the Commission for the Environment regarding the recent "State of the Environment 2002" report. Environment and Resource Conservation Director Dave Stancil recognized some of the members present from the Commission for the Environment. On March 29th, there was an Environmental Summit in Orange County. This report was presented at the summit. The goal is to produce a document like this every two years that assesses the County's environmental status and provides a snapshot of where we are in our natural resource protection efforts. In the odd year, they would like to prepare a brief progress report. There were 22 different environmental indicators used in this report. The Commission for the Environment identified five critical issues in the way of findings and offered some recommendations. The five critical issues include: 1) a 31 % increase in the amount of developed land per capita; 2) Triangle ground level ozone issues and impending air quality non-attainment for the region is going to pose a serious issue in the future; 3) the conversion, destruction, and degradation of native flora and fauna is a concern; 4) adequacy of water resources (15% increase in per capita water usage); 5) need for increased attention to groundwater issues. The recommendations are included on page three of the report. There are 10 different recommendations. He noted that there is a copy of the report available for download on the County's website. Commissioner Jacobs congratulated the staff and the Commission for the Environment on the report. He asked about the ozone monitor and the suggestion to talk with the legislative delegation. He asked what the County Commissioners should ask of the delegation to have a monitor installed in Orange County. Dave Stancil said that because we do not have an ozone monitor it is hard to monitor and most emissions are from the transportation corridors. Potential locations include the intersection of I-40 and I-85 or somewhere closer to RTP. The Division of Air Quality might be able to provide more information. Commissioner Jacobs also asked about air quality alerts and forestry practices and notification to citizens about burning permits during certain days. Perhaps the radio station WCHL could be used as a medium to educate the public about this. Dave Stancil said that he did talk with a County forester who indicated that this could be pursued. ' Commissioner Halkiotis said that the County is being pummeled by the non-attainment issue by the federal and State government. He wants to ask legislators for help and how to cure this because of the growth coming to the area. He would like to incorporate the ideas of Planning Director Craig Benedict and to bring approval of developments and the environment together because you cannot achieve non-attainment when you are adding more people and more fumes into the environment. Chair Brown said that she is so proud of this document and she would like to forward it to the other elected officials, State legislators, and Congressman David Price. Chair Brown said that she appreciates the indicators because one of the County Commissioners' goals about six years ago was that all County departments develop indicators so that the Board could understand the level of sustainability and how to monitor the sustainability in all areas. She asked Dave Stancil to point out places in the community where we could look for improvement - such as the air quality issue. She would like to encourage schools to use public transportation instead of cars and to share this with the school districts and to have recommendations for change for the other towns. Commissioner Jacobs made reference to page three and the biological resources recommendations. One is to ensure that 10% of the County is in permanently protected status by the year 2010. He made reference to the chart on page 28, which lists permanently and partially protected. He said that if one were to look at what is protected -partially and permanently -there are 17,023 acres, and we are short 8,577 acres. He said that there is not such a grim gap in partially and permanently protected properties. He said that there is a better picture than is portrayed in the report. c. Triangle Land Conservancy "State of Open Space 2002" 6