Minutes 03-12-2013 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Dave Stancil said another issue is that Orange County has done a lot over the years but, many of these things don't count toward their phosphorous reduction. Commissioner McKee asked where the base year would be established. He also asked if the base year would affect reductions. Gail Hughes said 2006 is the farthest base year that can be referred back to. Dave Stancil said anything prior to that year is lost and it does not count toward the County's reduction. Commissioner McKee said that is his concern, as there were a lot of best practices put in place in the late 70's, 80's and 90's that will be lost. He also said that he does not believe that 77% can be reached. Gail Hughes said the phosphorus has been discussed many times in the Watershed Oversight Committees, which is the agricultural oversight committee. She said researchers have said that even if no more fertilizer was ever put on the ground, the phosphorus reduction goal would still not be attainable. Commissioner Gordon said Orange County voluntarily put in lot reduction sizes and did a lot to preserve water quality. Dave Stancil said one of the dilemmas noted in 2010 is that the loading rates are expected to be low, partially because of all the measures already in place. This means, by the letter of the law, it is hard to reduce something that is closer to zero by 40% and 77% than it is when starting from a larger number. He said this is why the opportunity to re-visit the nutrient strategy is important. Commissioner Gordon asked if it was possible to go to a performance base. Dave Stancil said this argument has been made in the past and he expects this to come out again. Chair Jacobs invited Pam Hemminger, Chair and Orange County Representative with the UNRBA to come forward. Chair Jacobs said the letters at the Commissioners' places articulated a lot of Orange County's concerns about water preservation. Commissioner Pelissier said her petition was to send a copy of these letters or a revised letter to DENR as soon as possible. Pam Hemminger said, from a political view, the big picture is that the lake is impaired and the state is expected to do something about it. The state has put the task back on the local jurisdictions, and each jurisdiction will be graded on the quality of the water in the lake as a whole; therefore it won't matter what one county has done or what the others haven't done. She said that this does not mean that efforts shouldn't be made to get credit for things being done, but this is a group project and the grading will be based on what the State finds in the lake. She noted that Orange County has the largest land mass in the watershed area and most of this is forested and agricultural land. She said she does not know how you can reduce forested land's output by 40% and 77% of these nutrients other than building a big retaining lake to hold it down. She said there are issues about this modeling program because it does not take into account the amount of nitrogen and the distance put in. She said Department of Water Quality (DWQ) has not been monitoring the lake because of cutbacks. She said she wants to know how much Orange County and its tributary, the Eno River, is contributing nutrients into the lake and as of now, no one knows where the nutrient problem is coming from. She noted that the biggest players are Raleigh and Durham, which have mostly urban interests, and thus have more credits and BMP's established by the state. She said that part of UNRBA's goal is to make sure that a long list of BMP's is available to the county, and to try and help the agricultural community.