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southern Orange County. We have a service area that includes a number of communities
<br /> outside of just the Orange Water and Sewer Authority. We have many connections with the
<br /> water systems that you see outlined here in this figure through a series of interconnections for
<br /> emergency purposes. So, in effect, as a region, we are almost completely connected together
<br /> so that we can serve one another if water were to be unavailable. We are operators of water
<br /> and sewer systems, not of power plants, not of anything else. We have a great deal of
<br /> experience dealing with emergency response that relates to our business. We deal in public
<br /> health daily, because if this was not healthy, we could not drink it. We care for the environment.
<br /> We, certainly as a board, and as an authority are very proud of our record of taking a lot of
<br /> these issues seriously and trying to deal with them very effectively. Unfortunately, at this point,
<br /> we do not believe that we are in a position to respond effectively to what might happen if there
<br /> was radiation release from the Shearon Harris facility. And it is really to that point that we would
<br /> like to talk tonight.
<br /> From our perspective, and as frontline emergency people with experience in this
<br /> area, we believe we have an obligation, not only to our customers, but to all of those other
<br /> utilities that we are connected with in order to be certain that we can provide a safe water supply
<br /> to the community. We have a number of concerns. As water supply experts, we are not
<br /> experts in radiation. We do not believe that the radiation experts are necessarily experts in
<br /> public water supply. So the bottom line for us, and I think for the community as a whole, is to
<br /> foster communication, to fill in the information gaps that we have in this situation. And that has
<br /> become much more acute, of course, since September 11`h. We have made some efforts to
<br /> become informed. We have had a number of meetings with officials from the North Carolina
<br /> Division of Radiation Protection, the Division of Environmental Health, the Division of
<br /> Emergency Management, and Progress Energy. These meetings have been very useful, and
<br /> they have provided us, as a board, some very practical information on which to build our own
<br /> strategies for dealing with these kind of events. On November 28`h I was there when Bernadette
<br /> Pelissier, who is our board chair, petitioned the Triangle J Council of Governments to take a
<br /> leadership role in organizing and gathering, and then ultimately the dissemination of information
<br /> on behalf of all of us in the region who have local water utilities that provide this water that we
<br /> drink; and to coordinate and essentially formulate a plan for a regional response by local water
<br /> utilities in the event of some kind of a radiation release. Unfortunately, TJCOG declined to act
<br /> on that petition. This means that there is really no mechanism at the present time for
<br /> formulating some kind of a regional response, or for determining whether or not it can be
<br /> possible for local water supply utilities to supply safe water after a substantial radiation release.
<br /> We wrote to Mr. William Cavanaugh of Progress Energy on December 6`h of last year, asking
<br /> that the organization address a list of questions that we had about radiation issues. To date, we
<br /> have not received satisfactory answers to those questions. The absence of some very basic
<br /> information truly makes it impossible for us, the Orange Water and Sewer Authority, and for
<br /> others in similar straits, all of those communities who are in the area around Jordan Lake, to
<br /> know whether any response that we could make, any response, would really enable us to
<br /> provide safe water to our customers. And that is our obligation. If we cannot drink this water for
<br /> a day, we have enough water collectively in the systems to manage. A few days, and we are
<br /> out of water. It is not like the cable system, if you do not pay your bill, you do not get cable. But
<br /> if we do not have any water, we do not have life.
<br /> So, where are we now? There are three areas of concern from our perspective —
<br /> water supply interruption, emergency response in the short term, and emergency response in
<br /> the long term. Where does this leave us? Well, we think it is useful to consider these facts
<br /> because, in fact, if we do not, we will not have a coordinated plan for our authority on how to
<br /> deal with these matters. Let's look for example at water supply interruption. How would
<br /> OWASA meet the needs of our utility customers to supply water if it were shut down for more
<br /> than a day? But beyond that, think about a week, think about a month. What do you do? Not
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