Agenda - 09-20-2007-6c - Laserfiche WebLink

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~~~~~ Jordan Lake Water Supply Nutrient Management Strategy and Rules Status Report -September 7, 2007 Over the past several years, the N.C. Department of Enviroriment and Natural Resources' .Division of Water Quality has worked to prepare rules to address water quality in Jordan Lake watershed. The Jordan Lake watershed stretches from north of Greensboro to Cary, and includes portions of eight counties. Almost half of Orange County (125,000 acres) is in the Jordan Lake watershed, including Chapel Hill and Carrboro. The rulemaking process also included a Jordan Lake Stakeholders Project, facilitated by Triangle J Council of Governments, to provide a sounding board and feedback on the rules. Watershed modeling was performed by TetraTech Inc. in 2003, as a basis for the rules. The proposed rules seek to address deteriorating water, quality due to algal growth and chlorophyll-a levels in Jordan Lake, designated as Nutrient Sensitive Waters (NSW). As noted in previous meetings of elected boards in Orange County, these water quality issues were predicted as far back as the early 1970's. The rules provide for a variety of measures to address nutrient loading in the watershed, which has been divided into sub-watersheds. The most stringent nutrient reduction efforts would be applied in the Upper New Hope Arm subwatershed, which includes southern Durham, Chapel Hill, Carrboro, and the' "Rural Buffer." Other portions of southwestern Orange County fall into the less-affected Haw River Arm subwatershed. In the Upper New Hope Arm, the rules call for a reduction of total nitrogen (TN) by 35% and. total phosphorus (TP) by 5%. To meet this goal, a variety of reduction measures would be applied that affect .wastewater providers (point=source dischargers), existing and new development, and agriculture. The cost of fully implementing these measures to achieve the desired reduction has been estimated at $905 million to the affected parties, including $530 million for local governments to address stormwater practices and infrastructure, and $256 million to wastewater providers to upgrade treatment plants. On June 15 of this year, the proposed rules were published and the. Environmental Management Commission (EMC) opened public hearings on the strategy and rules. Public hearings were held in July in Carrboro and Elon, and attracted large numbers of speakers. Comments from local jurisdictions were shared with the EMC hearing officers of the hearings, which supported the strategy to protect water quality but raised questions about some implementation interpretations. In response to suggestions from several