Minutes 01-27-2017 - Laserfiche WebLink

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19 state that has had affordable housing bonds—and they have done three. They are investing in recycling and achieving results like no other county is. They had one of the first land use plans and watershed protection plans in the state. Their Joint Planning Agreement is still unique and the creation of OWASA. If they want to serve as a model for resilience in infrastructure, then when they do something positive they have to communicate it. Chair Dorosin suggested an "Orange County First" moment at the beginning of every Board meeting. They could announce their achievements in reducing water and fuel use, for example. In reply to a question from Commissioner Marcoplos, David Stancil said the County's environmental health staff would be able to inform the Board of the extent to which all county residents have access to safe drinking water. They have aesthetic issues throughout the county, he said, from naturally occurring contaminants. Iron manganese discolors some residents' well water, for example, but the levels are below those at which they would have any concerns about drinking water safety. He said he is not aware of any safety issues related to the public water supplies through Hillsborough or OWASA. Environmental Health can review their well water records for any pockets or patterns of contamination. Commissioner Marcoplos asked about the water supply in the Rogers Road neighborhood and a cancer cluster he has heard about in the Mebane/Efland-Cheeks area. Commissioner Jacobs recalled a neighborhood near Governor Burke Road where residents thought they had a cancer cluster. The Health Department got the State to investigate and there was no evidence of that. Commissioner Jacobs said part of why the county paid to put public water into the Rogers Road community was because people were complaining about their water quality. Commissioner Marcoplos recalled that none of the governments wanted to investigate the presence of contaminants in the soils around Rogers Road because then they would have been responsible for clean up. Commissioner Jacobs said he was not sure how those concerns were dealt with, although he recalled that the County had dealt with some of it. Gayle Wilson, Solid Waste Management Director, said the question was raised in the late 1990's about whether the landfill was contaminating the Rogers Road water supply. Environmental Health did a large number of environmental tests in the neighborhood and concluded that there were no indicators. All a resident had to do was call for a test; even if it was four times a year Environmental Health did it. There were contaminants found related to landfills, but for the most part it was the residents' failing septic systems that were contaminating the wells. That seemed to be the overriding issue of water there. The Board extended public water to the neighborhood not too long after that so the contaminated wells should not be so much of an issue over there now. Commissioner Jacobs recalled that Tara Fikes, former Director of Housing and Community Development, had informed the Board that some county residents did not have access to functional wells and septic systems, but she could never pin down who they were. We might look at the US Census data to see if there are still people reporting that they don't have functional wells or septic systems. David Stancil added that in groundwater studies conducted in the late 1990s near NC-54 South, in the southeastern corner of the county, the Chatham granitic pluton soils showed elevated levels of radon. This is not significant with regard to drinking water, but can be a concern with regard to the aeration of the radon: hot showers would have aerated that radon. About a decade ago Environmental Health distributed flyers to residents in the area about this. Commissioner Jacobs said Fairview has higher levels of arsenic in its soils; before they built the park there the county investigated to see if there was some manmade source but it turned out to be naturally occurring.