Agenda - 06-04-1981 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Orange County received about 43 inches of precipitation a year. The precipitation is normally fairly evenly distributed throughout the year. The driest season is the fall when rainfall averages a little less than three inches per month. The wettest months are July and August when the precipitation total is augmented by thundershowers. DRAINAGE PATTERNS. it is fortunate that Orange County receives sub- stantial precipitation because it is in the headwaters of three ma- jor watersheds. A small portion of Cedar Grove Township drains north into the Roanoke Basin. Much of northern Orange County is part of the Neuse Basin. The main streams in this drainage basin are the north and south forks of the Little River and the Eno River both of which drain to the Flat River in Durham County. The Flat River flows to the Meuse River which empties into Pamlico Sound at New Bern. The southern and extreme western portions of the County are part of the Cape Fear Basin. Major streams are the New Hope River, Morgan Creek and Cane Creek all of which became part of the Cape Fear River in Chatham County. The Cape Fear flows until it empties into the Atlantic Ocean at Wilmington. The fact that Orange County lies in the headwaters of these three river basins means that in general the only water it receives is due to precipitation. The one exception to this statement is the Haw River which forms the southwestern boundary of the County. The Haw River drains Alamance and Guilford Counties before flowing past Orange County and thus has the most substantial flow of any stream in the County. WATER RESOURCES. Certain sub-basins within the Neuse and Cape Fear Basins in Orange County are water supply watersheds. These in- clude the upper Eno sub-basin which supplies water to Lake Orange, Corporation Lake and Lake Ben Johnson, and the Morgan Creek sub- , basin which drains to University Lakeas , theseareas contribute to the public water supply system special land use protection measures to preserve the quality of water are required, and will be discussed in further detail in the water resources section. STREAM SYSTEMS. The stream system which feeds the watershed, and sub- basins is defined by the draining characteristics of the area's land form. If a stream is within a water supply watershed, its im- portance is compounded as pollution or sedimentation of the streams could result in eventual damage to the water supply source. Land uses adjacent to the streams require management in ways which will minimize the potential for damage such as loss of dissolved oxygen, pathogenic contarrdnation, presence of nutrient salts, and damaging chemicals, heat and turbidity. Additional forms of pollution to be minimized include such aesthetic insults as the dumping of trash and garbage into streams. FLOODPLAINS. Floodplains are those areas which will be inundated by water in a specific storm event, normally defined as that storm whose probability for occurring is once every one hundred years.* The flood- plain can be further subdivided into two sub-areas on the basis of *NOTE. See Environmental Constraints Map.