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• The request to initiate a review must come in the form of a letter, from at least one (and 2 <br />preferably more than one) of the parties to the Agreement listed above, addressed to Mr: Tom <br />Reeder, Director of the Division of Water Resources (DWR). <br />• The letter should include a detailed explanation of why the current agreement is no longer <br />adequate and should specifically detail what items in the agreement should be subject to <br />review and the reason why the party(ies) requesting the review would like to see these items <br />amended. The letter should also, if possible, explain how any proposed changes will <br />improve the management of the Eno River. <br />• DWR will forward the letter to a subcommittee of the EMC known as the Water Allocation <br />Committee (WAC). The WAC will discuss the merits of the letter request and make a <br />recommendation to the full EMC as to whether the review of the Agreement should proceed. <br />The WAC. and the EMC meet every other month, so there is roughly a three month <br />timeframe from the submittal of the letter request until the request is heard by the full EMC. <br />• If the EMC agrees with the letter requesting review of the Agreement, then a plan of review <br />would be established. Depending on the particular type and scope of the review, it may be <br />possible for DWR staff to handle the review internally. If it is anticipated that outside parties <br />would be required to review the Agreement as requested, the requestor(s) may be asked to <br />pay for any external services necessary to accomplish the review. <br />Has An hing Changed? <br />Since the inception of the Agreement, in 1988, there have been very few changes made to the <br />Agreement itself. However, many of the parameters that were used to construct the agreement have <br />changed. The Town, OAWS, and Piedmont Minerals all have less water demand than they did then. <br />As a point of reference, the Town's allocation for withdrawal from the Eno doesn't fall below their <br />current average water demand until Lake Orange drops below 40% full. The allocation for Piedmont <br />Minerals drops to zero when the Lake drops below 30% full, but the allocation for OAWS never <br />falls below the amount they are currently withdrawing from the Eno River. In addition, The Town <br />and OAWS have additional water supplies that they did not have in 1988. <br />The most significant change to the Agreement was in 2000, when changes were made to the required <br />in-stream flow component of the Agreement in anticipation of the opening of the West Fork Eno <br />Reservoir (WEER). Even this change was actually an addition rather than a change. The original <br />agreement's allocation to each water user stayed the same, as did the Lake Orange contribution to in- <br />stream flow in the Eno River. The only thing added was the required minimum release from the <br />WEER. That said, the significance of the addition of the WEER cannot be understated with regards <br />to its impact on the Town's water supply reliability and to the health of the Eno River. <br />Shortly after construction of the WEER was complete in early 2002, Orange County experienced one <br />of the worst droughts in recent memory. Lake Orange dwindled down to more than nine feet below <br />spilling. Before the addition of the WEER to the Agreement, there would have been no in-stream <br />flow required and the Eno River could have been allowed to run dry once Lake Orange dropped <br />below about 7 '/2 feet. However, even though the WEER was not yet full, it was still required to <br />release a minimum of 650,000 gallons per day for in-stream flow. Because the WEER was there, the <br />Eno was able to maintain flow during the drought. <br />Since 2002, there have been other times of drought, most notably in 2007 and the current drought. <br />During the drought of 2007, there was a very vocal group which formed called the Friends of Lake <br />Orange (POLO), whose goal was to encourage Orange County to maintain the levels at Lake Orange <br />as high as possible. The POLO soon began to focus on the fact that the WEER was bigger than Lake <br />Orange, had no residents living around it and was not available for recreation. They convinced the <br />Town to release water over and above the release required by the Agreement. In so doing, the <br />2 <br />