Agenda - 06-04-1981 - Laserfiche WebLink

Browse Search

I: 2.3 WATER. RESOURCES WATER SUPPLY Orange County is one of the fastest growing counties in North Carolina. Preliminary figures from the 1980 Census show a 32 percent growth rate for the County over the past ten years. The County's location within the Research Triangle area and in the developing Piedmont Cresent indi- cates that the high growth rate experienced over the past ten years will likely continue in the future. While this growth will present many opportunities for the people of Orange County, planning must be- gin now to ensure that the expected growth is orderI,V and that pub- lic facilities and services, like adequate supplies of water, can be made available as they are needed. An adequate supply of drinking water is one resource often taken for granted by people. However, a sufficient supply of good quality is not available automatically. With the exception of the Haw River which forms the southwestern boundary of the County, no major streams through_ Orange County. The streams in the County carry only water flow that falls locally and are,therefore,small. There are no natural lakes of any size in the County. Ground water is the only supply available to persons in the rural areas of the County. Approximately 20 percent of the County's population or some 15,000 people are currently supplied with water from ground water resources. These people generally reside outside the towns of Carrboro, Chapel Hill, Hillsborough and the Efland community which are served by surface water supplies. In the rural, areas, home and farm needs can adequately be met by flows of as little as two or three gallons per minute. Data from wells drilled in the County show that nine out of ten wells drilled yield at least 2 gallons per minute. Sane wells yield 50 gallons per minute or more. Thus ground water conditions in Orange County are generally adequate to meet the needs of single house- holds and farm use in rural areas. While ground water reserves are estimated to be quite large, local geo- logy is such that locating and tapping this resource for use as a muni- cipal supply probably is not practical. This is the situation through- out the Piedmont of North Carolina and as a result urban areas in the Piedmont rely almost exclusively on surface reservoirs for public water supply. The majority of Orange County residents are supplied by water from two publicly owned water systems and one privately owned system. They are the Orange Water and Sewer Authority which serves Carrboro, Chapel Hill and surrounding areas, the Town of Hillsborough System and the privately owned Orange-Alamance water system,a non- profit association. Information on water resources is taken from Report of the Water Re- sources Task Force, Draft, May, 1981.