Agenda - 10-21-1997 - 11a - Laserfiche WebLink

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Provisional Cane Creek Recommendations 4 June 26, 1997 Page 2 presented at three public meetings, including one in Bingham Township in the watershed. Verbal and written comments were received from nearly 50 individuals. These were compiled by OWASA staff and reviewed by the Watershed Advisory Committee in March and April 1997. An additional management scenario emerged from this process and was evaluated by Tetra Tech, Inc. (successor contractors to the Cadmus Group) for compliance with previously established water quality goals. These provisional recommendations by the OWASA Board are based on these efforts, which lasted nearly three and a half years. Guiding Principles Long-standing water supply principles emphasize the importance of high quality source water. OWASA's own Water Supply Protection Policy expresses a commitment to high quality drinking water through a combination of source water protection and treatment technology. The overall goal developed by the Watershed Advisory Committee and adopted by the OWASA Board was to manage the Cane Creek Reservoir to meet or exceed all applicable state and federal standards and to ensure its excellent water quality and long term viability as a public water supply source. This goal was characterized by four water quality and two non-water quality objectives. The most important was minimizing risks to public health, but of the non-water quality objectives,both the Committee and Board considered minimizing impacts on County residents who are not OWASA customers to be more important than minimizing rate increases to OWASA customers, and nearly as important as the public health objective. These objectives established benchmarks against which alternative management scenarios were evaluated and measured by Cadmus. Additional principles and core values that underlie the recommendations presented in this report are noted below. Virtually all are related to the long period of time during which Cane Creek is expected to serve the community. • The Cane Creek Reservoir is a valuable resource in which the people of Carrboro and Chapel Hill have invested more than 20 million dollars. It is essential to protect this investment for the next 100 years or more. • OWASA and other water providers are responsible for making decisions today and for managing resources for a future too distant to see with clarity. Sound management requires making these decisions with care and caution in order to sustain as many options as possible for future generations. • Water quality problems typically develop over periods of years or decades and may require years or decades to resolve. Even though Cane Creek water quality is in compliance with current State and federal standards, actions are needed today in advance of environmental and regulatory conditions of tomorrow. Important lessons exist in the