Agenda - 11-18-2014 - 6a - Laserfiche WebLink

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10 1 Commissioner Gordon asked about the two state groundwater wells and whether this 2 data is used. 3 Tom Davis said that data is not being used. 4 Chair Jacobs said one of the reasons this started in the first place was because of an 5 incident where residents on Arthur Minnis Road reported adverse impact to their wells as a 6 result of the development of a new subdivision. He hopes this data is being provided to the 7 planning department. He said one of the goals of the Commissioners was to use this data to 8 respond to citizen's concerns, and that is why he supported doing these measures, not to 9 gather abstract data. 10 Commissioner Rich said it would have been nice to have had the history of this to put 11 the discussion into context. 12 Chair Jacobs noted that this is also an initiative of the Commission for the Environment. 13 Commissioner Gordon shared some background history, and suggested an executive 14 summary be provided. 15 Commissioner McKee asked if any of these wells are close to commercial wells. 16 Tom Davis said no. 17 Commissioner McKee said unless you site a monitoring well near a commercial well, 18 you will not get the information you want. He said these other wells do not accommodate the 19 draw of a commercial well, which answers the questions about the impact of drilling a well for a 20 subdivision. He asked if there are any commercial wells around. 21 Chair Jacobs said Orange Alamance has a commercial well. 22 Commissioner McKee said a monitoring well needs to be sited in this location, and data 23 can then be gathered to determine what the commercial well is doing to the water table in that 24 area. 25 Dave Stancil said this might be an option. He said this is a long topic, and what people 26 want to know is how new wells affect the water on their own lot. He said the nature of the 27 underlying geology makes this very tricky, and it will take more years of data to really get 28 answers. 29 Commissioner McKee agreed that more years of data are needed, but he thinks a 30 monitoring well should be drilled next to a commercial well to look at the trend for that 31 groundwater level. 32 Dave Stancil said he will look at whether there is an opportunity to do this. 33 Chair Jacobs said Orange Alamance drilled these wells fairly recently and there was 34 concern over what this would do to area water levels. 35 Craig Benedict said Orange Alamance water systems chose not to use these wells as 36 prime wells but to buy water from the Mebane /Graham system. He said this subject has been 37 around since the 1990's. He said the underlying geography makes it very hard to predict the 38 impact from one lot to the next, but he goal is to see if there are trends over the long term as it 39 relates to the lowering of the ground water. 40 Commissioner McKee said his request is moot if these commercial wells are not being 41 regularly used. He asked if there are any operating commercial wells in Orange County. 42 Craig Benedict said there are two categories of commercial well. He said one of these 43 includes a subdivision with a centralized well. He said it may be possible to take a look at these 44 to do monitoring well in an adjacent private well. 45 Commissioner Price said she recalls the planning board asking for additional information 46 about the impact of new developments on water tables after the 1996 report. She remembers 47 being told that there was a way to look at this, but it would cost thousands of dollars, and it was 48 not possible to deny development based on water availability. She asked if the County is now 49 headed toward putting in development regulations based on water resources.