Agenda - 05-19-1982 - Laserfiche WebLink

Browse Search

01033 SUANMARY OF CANE CREEK EIS Summary of Cane Creek EIS contains: The Environm=ental Impact Statement (EIS) prepared by the NC Department of Environmental Management for the proposed,Cane Creek reservoir relies heavily on previous reports prepared for OWPSA and the the EIS prepared by the US Army Corps of Engineers. The following are some of the significant conclusions of the EIS and Planning Staff comments on them. Water Quality The most viable alternative to the Cane Creek supply for southern Orange County is Jordan Lake. The expected water quality in these two reservoirs has long been a controversy and the question is discussed extensively in the EIS. The Cane Creek supply is located in a relatively small, rural water- shed. There are no permitted point source discharges upstream of the Cane Creek dam. Cane Creek water quality is therefore primarily in- fluenced by nonpoint source runoff. Since most of the watershed is either wooded or cultivated as farmland, the potential pollutants which might be found in the runoff could include nutrients, agricultural chem- icals and suspended sediments. In contrast the EIS points out that there are 132 point source dis- charges of domestic or industrial wastes to the streams in the Jordan Lake watershed. These include 94 discharges of domestic wastes and 39 industrial waste discharges in the watershed. Effulent from these dis- charges represents 8y of the average flow at the Jordan dam. Nonpoint source pollution also ought to be more significant in Jordan Lake because its drainage area includes the urbanized areas of Greensboro, Burlington, Chapel Hill and part of Durham. Based on what we know about the quality of runoff from urban areas and the large number of point sources of / pollution in the Jordan watershed, the conclusion should be that the Cane Creek supply should be far superior. The EIS, however, does not reach this conclusion. Cane Creek and Jordan Lake have been proposed as water supply sources for more than 10 years and a body of water quality data has accumulated for these potential sources in that time. The EIS states that in the past, Cane Creek reservoir was considered the better quality water supply based on existing data. Based on more recent monitoring and analysis, the EIS concludes that the differences in quality are not so readily apparent. The report suggests that the improvement may be due to better water quality in the Haw and New Hope steams brought about by increasing regulation of point source discharges. Another reason that the more recent data appears to show improved water quality in the Haw and New Hope steams could be that an insufficient number of samples were taken, that they were taken at the wrong times or the samples were of only a few selected pollutants of the many possible pollutants. In any case, the final water quality of an impoundment cannot be completely assessed until each of the lakes have formed and stabilized for several years.