Agenda - 10-21-1986 - Laserfiche WebLink

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have made this a rather unlikely alternative at this time. The Orange-Alamance Water Corporation, a private water company, is supplying water from the Eno River, Neuse Basin, to customers in Alamance County, Cape Fear Basin, adjoining the areas supplied by Mebane and Graham. The major growth of their service area is occurring in Alamance County. There is at present no limits except presently installed equipment on the amount of water this private corporation can• withdraw from the Eno and divert to Alamance County. It appears to me that for the next 10-15 years the demands on the upper Eno River water will 'continue to exceed the storage capacity and abuses to the stream flow level will continue to occur. It is also a rational judgement that if Hillsborough is forced to purchase water and maintain a 7Q10 in the river, that they will purchase only the minimum amount of water necessary, and that the 7Q10 will become the regulated, sustained flow existing un-naturally for many months as it was this year. The only regulations devised to deal with this problem lie within the Capacity Use Area Act. and allow the State of North Carolina to perform scienti- fically based studies of the watershed, develop guidelines to manage the conflicting interests, assist the users in implementing necessary changes, and if ultimately necessary, declare the Eno River Basin a Capacity Use Area and regulate by permit all withdrawals in excess of 0.1 mgd. The jurisdictions involved have been warned for over 10 years that they would have to deal with their water supply problem. By delaying, and usurping the natural stream flow levels they have created a crisis that has no quick solution. I believe that the time is near where the information gained through a capacity use study by the State will be essential in assuring protection for the Eno River. I would like to ask this committee to pass a resolution supporting a Capacity Use Study on the Eno River.