Orange County NC Website
Browse       Search
16 <br /> 1 Tom Davis said UNRBA is made up of many towns and counties, and Orange County <br /> 2 has the most land in the watershed. He reviewed the following information: <br /> 3 <br /> 4 BACKGROUND: <br /> 5 The Upper Neuse River Basin Association (UNRBA), of which Orange County is a <br /> 6 member, is working on a multi-year effort (titled "The Path Forward") to revise Stage II of the <br /> 7 Falls Lake Nutrient Management Strategy (Falls Lake Rules). As currently written, Stage II of <br /> 8 the Falls Lake Rules requires local governments, the North Carolina Department of <br /> 9 Transportation (NCDOT), the agricultural community, and other regulated parties located in the <br /> 10 Falls Lake watershed (Attachment A) to reduce nitrogen and phosphorus nutrient loading to <br /> 11 Falls Lake by 40% and 77%, respectively. While the members of the UNRBA agree that <br /> 12 protecting Falls Lake as the City of Raleigh's water supply is paramount, the members also <br /> 13 agree that there are serious technical and financial impediments to meeting these nutrient <br /> 14 reduction goals. <br /> 15 Additional background information concerning the Falls Lake Rules, the underlying <br /> 16 Consensus Principles, estimated costs to comply with the Falls Lake Rules, and related <br /> 17 information are provided in Attachment B, excerpts from the agenda abstract from the October <br /> 18 14, 2014 Board of County Commissioners work session. <br /> 19 Tom Davis said the UNRBA continues to make progress on several important projects, <br /> 20 including: <br /> 21 1. Lake and Watershed Water Quality Monitoring <br /> 22 2. BMP Nutrient Credit Development <br /> 23 3. Development of Nutrient Credit Calculation Tool <br /> 24 4. Falls Lake Rules Review <br /> 25 <br /> 26 Tom Davis then reviewed each of these projects: <br /> 27 <br /> 28 1. Lake and Watershed Water Quality Monitorinq <br /> 29 CardnoEntrix, the consultant working for the UNRBA, completed the first 12 months of water <br /> 30 quality sampling in July 2015. The Falls Lake Rules stipulate that in order for outside data to be <br /> 31 evaluated during the re-examination of Stage II of the Falls Lake Rules, a minimum of three <br /> 32 years of sampling data must be collected for the data to be considered by the Environmental <br /> 33 Management Commission (EMC). The UNRBA's water quality sampling program is producing <br /> 34 information for the following purposes: <br /> 35 • Determination of sources of nutrients in the watershed and the loading of nutrients from <br /> 36 individual jurisdictions to Falls Lake; <br /> 37 • Falls Lake response modeling; <br /> 38 • Development of data for consideration of additional regulatory options; and <br /> 39 • Linkage of water quality conditions in Falls Lake to the designated uses of the Lake. <br /> 40 <br /> 41 Attachment A identifies the locations of surface water sampling stations for both the <br /> 42 jurisdictional and lake tributary nutrient loading determination projects. All of the data collected <br /> 43 is available for review at the web site set up for this purpose: http://unrba-wgp.cardno.com/ <br /> 44 <br /> 45 Attachment C is an example of the results obtained from water quality samples collected in five <br /> 46 streams that feed into the northern end of Falls Lake. Fairly significant variations in these <br /> 47 nutrient concentrations are seen among the five streams, as well as over the course of the time <br /> 48 interval shown for two of the streams listed. Attachment D illustrates variations in the volume of <br /> 49 stream flow in three streams in the upper portion of the Falls Lake watershed. The combination <br /> 50 of nutrient concentration and rate of streamflow in each individual stream determines the <br />