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ORANGE COUNTY <br />BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS <br />ACTION AGENDA ITEM ABSTRACT <br />Meeting Date: September 6, 2007 <br />Action Agenda <br />Item No. (a,- <br />SUBJECT: Re-authorization of County Participation in the Triangle Area Water Supply <br />Monitoring Project, Phase 6 <br />DEPARTMENT: County Manager PUBLIC HEARING: (Y/N) No <br />ATTACHMENT(S): <br />Packet from TJCOG Containing <br />Interlocal Agreement and Scope of <br />Work <br />INFORMATION CONTACT: <br />County Engineer, 919-245-2303 <br />PURPOSE: To present to the BOCC, for its approval and ratification, a resolution that both <br />amends the interlocal agreement governing the Triangle Area Water Supply Monitoring Project <br />and reauthorizes continuing County participation in what is now Phase 6 of the project. <br />BACKGROUND: In 1988, Orange County and a number of other Triangle-area local <br />governments and agencies involved in providing drinking water derived from surface waters <br />entered into a interlocal agreement to fund a project designed to acquire water quality data on <br />the area's raw water supplies. These governments and agencies contracted with Triangle J <br />Council of Governments and the US Geological Survey (USGS) to conduct a three year <br />program of: a) sampling, monitoring and analyzing (laboratory analysis) the regions raw water <br />supplies (rivers, lakes and reservoirs); and b) evaluating the significance of the findings in terms <br />of detecting and explicating trends in the improvement or decline in water quality. <br />The initial three years (Phase 1) of the project were completed in 1991. At the time, data <br />analysis indicated that existing water quality was generally higher than anticipated. However, <br />the governments and agencies participating in the project concluded that much more needed to <br />be learned about the area's water supply quality and actual and potential sources of water <br />quality impact. Accordingly, the project participants agreed to extend the project (Phase 2) for <br />an additional four years and modified/re-authorized the interlocal agreement at unchanged <br />funding levels. <br />In 1995, the governments and agencies (with the exception of the City of Raleigh, the project's <br />largest funding contributor) again modified/re-authorized the project (Phase 3) for four additional <br />years with new and additional monitoring, data collection and evaluation goals and needs. In <br />1999, the project was re-authorized once again for fours years with slight modifications (Phase <br />4)