|
really come dawn to dollar per dollar. So there is a financial cost in running water and sewer in areas. So, as
<br />far as doing our study, it is not a study for boundaries for growth. Our agreement that we have with Orange
<br />Alamance Water System indicated we do a 20-year plan growth area several years ago with the City of
<br />Graham. And in those areas, if water is needed, we would subsidize water based on growth areas. So that's
<br />our agreement with Orange Alamance Water System. Orange Alamance Water System has helped us in the
<br />past and given us water. We do work well with those folks, and hopefully anybody; and I think everybody in
<br />this room would say, "If we can service someone that needs water, we will try to do so to the best of our
<br />ability." But it really comes down to dollar figures. The way the economy is, our reimbursements this year
<br />from the State are going to be zero, next year is going to be zero, so we need to look at other means of
<br />raising monies.
<br />E. OWASA - Ed Kerwin
<br />This year is our 25t anniversary of operation. The utilities were separate systems owned by the
<br />two towns and the University. The University and towns gat out of the utility business 25 years ago when
<br />OWASA was formed. We are governed by ovine-member appointed board of directors from Chapel Hill,
<br />Carrboro, and Orange County. The OWASA board has the last say with respect to policy, rates, borrowing
<br />money. Same of the slides you are going to see will shave the high points of a 50-year comprehensive
<br />master plan that was just completed. It didn't take us 50 years to get it completed, it took us three years. But
<br />we've looked at 50 years into the future and started to project how much water and sewer will be expected of
<br />us and what facility improvements we'll need to put in place to meet that. The real key assumptions in our
<br />master plan is our service area boundaries will not change, that we're not going to be a wholesale provider of
<br />water or sewer service, and that the growth trends we've seen in the past 20-25 years would continue in the
<br />future. Here is our service area in red, essentially the towns of Chapel Hill and Carrboro. Our water supply
<br />comes from three sources -Cane Creek Reservoir, University Lake Watershed, and a stave quarry, currently
<br />being mined. Thirty years from now the mining will stop and during those times when University Lake and
<br />Cane Creek are full and overflowing, some of that water will be diverted to the stone quarry reservoir for
<br />storage and become part of the overall supply system.
<br />The County and OWASA have been very proactive in protecting the watershed. In the current
<br />system of University Lake, Cane Creek, and the small existing quarry reservoir, we've had a 30-year safe
<br />yield of about 15 million gallons a day, and that should be adequate far the next 20-25 years. But we do have
<br />a long-term interest in retaining our Jordan Lake allocation, and I'll talk a little bit more about that in a few
<br />minutes. He distributed copies of the PowerPoint presentation. The green dots represent the raw water or
<br />pumped, and you can see over time that we've been a very predictable utility or service area as far as growth
<br />- 2-3°~ growth of water far the last 25 years, if we went back to day one for OWASA. And then these lines
<br />represent how we expect to grow. The center line is what's expected, and then we have a low growthlhigh
<br />growth scenario. The lakes have a safe yield of 15mgd, but we have to improve the size of the pumps and
<br />the pipes to get it all there when we make those improvements over the next five or six years. Here we are
<br />with a safe yield of about 15 million gallons a day, and if you go over here and find a green line, how we
<br />expect it to grow, that takes us to the year 2030. However, if we grow higher than what's expected or, when
<br />the key assumptions change and now we're providing water to another entity or something like that, then this
<br />all changes, of course. And this is the basis on which we believe we have justified hanging on to some of our
<br />Jordan Lake allocations. Currently our allocation is 10 million gallons a day. We have asked it to be reduced
<br />to five, and we've justified that based on this uncertainty in the future within the next 20-30 years of perhaps
<br />having a deficit. We have talked to Durham and Chatham about collaboration in Jordan Lake. A likely
<br />scenario for us to consider in the future is buying finished water from Durham, if we are in the situation makes
<br />much more sense for us rather than building our own conveyance system from Jordan Lake. And then in the
<br />future, you see this safe yield jumping up to about 20 million gallons a day, a little over 20 million gallons a
<br />day, and that's when we think the quarry reservoir will be online. And so, if all goes well, we should have
<br />enough supply in Orange County, given those assumptions, to meet our needs for the next 50 years with
<br />some uncertainty here.
<br />The dark blue line is our annual average daily demand. The other lighter colored line is the peak
<br />day demand. And you can see that the peak day demands have been increasing, and this is just depending
<br />on the weather. If you look back here, this is 1999, and you can see we had a peak day of over 15 million
<br />gallons a day where the annual average was a little over 8 million gallons a day, almost twice the annual
<br />average. So this is something that is of particular interest to us because of course the water plant has to be
<br />sized to meet that peak day demand. The water treatment plant has a current capacity of 15 million gallons a
<br />
|