Agenda - 10-15-2013 - 5f - Laserfiche WebLink

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15 Attachment 3 - - - -- Original Message---- - From: Pam Hemminger [mai Ito: pshemminger @gmail.com] Sent: Friday, October 04, 2013 6:45 PM To: Barry Jacobs; Earl McKee; Alice Gordon; Bernadette Pelissier; David Stancil; Michael Talbert; Donna Baker Subject: support of the UNRBA agenda item Dear BOCC and Interim Manager- As your representative to the UNRBA (or Falls Lake Watershed Association) I wanted to write you in support of an item that will be before you at your October 15, 2013 meeting. I will be out of the country during that time visiting my daughter and will not be able to speak in support of this item. The UNRBA has voted to proceed with having a consultant bring us a Tool Box of Credits in dealing with nutrient trading in the Falls Lake area. For Stage 1 rules of the lake, each jurisdiction is to proceed with a plan to reduce nutrients for new development and implement Best Management Practices (BMPs) in these areas for existing development (eventually). Without knowing what kind of credits we would receive for different BMPs, it would be hard to chose a plan that gives up the biggest benefit for the least cost. The state should be developing this Toolbox of Credits but to date they only have 5 credits posted and have told us that they have no funding or plans to develop this list in the near future. The estimated cost of the Toolbox development is around $430,000. Raleigh has issued a "challenge grant" of $150,000 and the rest of the jurisdictions have pledged to meet their goals - ours being $20,000 over 2 years. Hillsborough is contributing $5,000 and Durham County is pledging $25,000 with the city of Durham pledging much more. Most of the other entities have a storm water fee pool to pull these funds from, Orange County has to move monies from other budget lines in done outside of the budget planning during the year. The Department of Water Resources (DWR) has given a grant of $50,000 towards this project. Several of us met with the new chair of the EMC this week to discuss this project and other parts of the UNRBA progress. He was very receptive and supportive of our efforts. The UNRBA is much further ahead of its rules implementation than the Jordan Lake Watershed Association. So what does Orange County get for $20,000? In my mind this is a wonderful opportunity to procure a list of credits that we can use to reduce our nutrient loading towards our goals in Stage 1 of the rules. We do not have to develop our own list or recreate work with our own staff time. This list will be available to everyone in the UNRBA and maybe later to other watersheds in the state. We could not produce this information on our own for less than $20,000. We are trying to stay on the schedule set forth in the Falls Lake Rules to reduce nutrient loading and improve water quality in the lake so that the EPA does not set TMDLs (total maximum daily loads) for our area or start reviewing all new development. Have you had enough acronyms for one topic? In closing, please support the allocation of $20,000 towards this project. The other jurisdictions have already committed their funds.