Agenda - 09-06-1977 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Memorandum To : Orange County Board of Commissioners From: Sam Gattis , Orange County Manager Date: September 5, 1977 Subject: Present Dater Use From lake Orange Fri ay afternoon I met with Mr. Mason Banks, General Manager and Mr. Sam dwards, Plant Manager, of Piedmont Minerals. According to their estimate they had enough water to continue in open-°tion for an additional half day then they must close. To help bring you up to date in this matter I have attached a copy of the letter I sent to Mr. Edwards and Mr. Banks concerning their water situation. Our conversation of last Friday essentially substantiates the factual information concerning water usage I re- viewed in this letter. Piedmont needs at least two additional weeks to complete work on its recycling system. When completed their water use should be re- duced from roughly 750,000 gallons daily to 250,000 gallons daily. Unfortunatel3 this system will not benefit us as much as first glance indicates. iedmo� t is presently using 750,000 gallons per day, A large amount of this water is evaporated in their process and the remainder returned to the river. At this time the water returned is providing much of the flow in Eno River that, is used to dilute effluent from the Hillsborough sewer plant. If this flow is curtailed a critical condition mi ht arise below the Hillsborough sewer plant. In order for Piedmont to Flace its recycling system into operation it must, after completing its system, fill a sediment pond that holds in excess of 20,000,000 g lions. At current operational levels this will take about six weeks. Therefore even if completed I am not sure we can spare the water necessary to fill this basin. In any event Mr.' Banks and Mr. Edwards are here to request you allow me release additional water from Lake Orange in order that they might continue in operation. Based on their present fourteen hour week day the need 750,000 gallons per day. A curtailed work day would . reduce their water demands. At fresent the lake level at lake Orange is 510 feet 8 inches. This means there are approximatley 350,000,000 gallons of water re- maining in t e lake. Perhaps only 70% of this water is usable, from a quality standpoint, however all can actually be withdrawn from the lake. On the assumption only 70% of the water in the lake is uasble our present vater situation is shown below.