Agenda - 05-22-1989 - Laserfiche WebLink

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in Orange County, and is considered to be of high quality. In Alamance County, both Graham-Mebane and Burlington have identified large reservoir sites which are being developed. The Back Creek Reservoir, being constructed by Graham-Mebane, will have an estimated 20 year safe yield of 17.4 mgd. A large part of this watershed lies in Cheeks and Cedar Grove Townships. Burlington is developing a reservoir on Greater Alamance Creek west of the Town of Alamance. It is scheduled to be built in two stages with a final capacity of 34 mgd. The public water supply systems in Orange County are interconnected with each other and the municipal systems in Graham-Mebane, and Durham. While these interconnections were activated in order to supply water in emergency situations, they should be the forerunner of a more regional approach to water supply. Good reservoir sites are not distributed equally among counties in the Piedmont. Counties such as Orange need to look beyond their borders for future supplies. Water Quality The earliest recognized water quality problems had to do with the contamination of drinking water supplies by human and animal wastes. Pathogens, including those responsible for typhoid fever and cholera, live in human and animal digestive tracts and can be transmitted by drinking water that has been in contact with body waste products. Typhoid fever and cholera were major causes of death until the beginning of this century when the chlorination process for disinfecting water was developed. Chlorination of public drinking water supplies rather quickly eliminated the spread of water-borne diseases in the United States. Water quality was no longer a major concern. In recent years, concern over water quality has re-emerged, centered around new classes of pollutants like heavy metals, synthetic organic. compounds, and low-level radioactivity. Modern society uses these materials at a scale unequaled in the past. They are indispensable for the functioning of modern society. Many of them, however, have the potential to significantly affect human health. The misuse and improper disposal of these materials has caused many of them to become pollutants in surface and ground water supplies. Some of these pollutants, like lead, have long been used by man but are now being used on a scale beyond the ability of the environment to absorb them and render them harmless. The 2.3 text 7