Orange County NC Website
water at Lake Orange. This agreement sets limitations an the water purveyors. The <br />idea behind the Capacity Use Agreement and the Water Use Ordinance is to prolong the <br />life of the reservoir and Lake Orange. He said that if we are going to work the reservoirs <br />in tandem then the Capacity Use Agreement needs to be modified and the State Division <br />of Water Resources and the North Carolina Environmental Management Commission <br />will have to sign off on the process. <br />John Link said that the next step would be to have a smaller group to talk about <br />what Paul Thames described, which is to coordinate the capacity use agreement and the <br />water conservation ordinances. Also, OWASA' s ordinance does not match our <br />ordinances and it might be good to change the verbiage to coincide with each entity. <br />Paul Thames said that they have discussed this in the H2Orange work group, <br />which includes Hillsborough, OWASA, and County staff. <br />Commissioner Halkiotis made reference to the second page of the abstract and <br />turf farms. He said that these turf farms use large quantities of water without limit or <br />regulation. He wants to engage and involve members of the agricultural community to <br />diversify and move away from this. <br />Paul Thames said that the upstream turf farmers may or may not be a major <br />player in the water demand. <br />Chair Jacobs said that if we are not facing a drought situation now then we have <br />time to try modeling. He said that if turf farming is an issue, then it should be brought to <br />the forefront so that it can be confronted. <br />Michael Gering said that he wonders how this will play out over time and we may <br />be facing mandatory restrictions again. <br />Chair Jacobs said that staff could be charged to develop an interim plan first to <br />make sure we have adequate water supply. <br />Michael Gering said that the issue far him is coordination of water for in town and <br />out of town customers and they should handle this themselves. <br />Chair Jacobs said that we would work a process where after the staff brought <br />forward this information, it would be brought to a public process for comment. <br />Mayor Phelps asked that each body direct staff first before the two staffs come <br />together since the Town and County may have different goals. <br />Chair Jacobs said that this would be fine, but he thought they were both in <br />accord. <br />Mayor Phelps said that, as a Board, they have not discussed this Capacity Use <br />Agreement. They need to become more familiar with it before they send staff out to <br />work on this. <br />c. Double Water Rates <br />Chair Jacobs addressed the public in attendance and said that these are work <br />sessions and there is not public comment on the issues here. He has talked with Will <br />Atherton, who formally brought this to the Board of County Commissioners' attention. <br />The County Commissioners wanted to bring this up, but they do believe the Town board <br />listens to people that do not vote for the Town. He said that he shares the concerns. He <br />hopes that the Board of County Commissioners can be a sounding board for the citizens <br />and the Town. The County Commissioners would like to be kept informed other than by <br />the newspapers. <br />Commissioner Carey said that these work sessions are not decision-making <br />sessions and he shares the concerns that people outside of town are being charged <br />double rates. He thinks that we are hearing more now since the drought when we were <br />encouraging people to conserve and they are still paying more. He knows that the new <br />reservoir was expensive. He said that, if we are going to encourage people to conserve <br />