Agenda - 08-29-2002 - 2 - Laserfiche WebLink

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464-- customers of Hillsborough and Orange-Alamance are facing very stringent water use restrictions and Piedmont Minerals is facing a potential complete shut-down of its operations. However,the first time availability of raw water from Hillsborough's new reservoir(which has never completely filled)has helped not only the Town,but Orange-Alamance and Piedmont Minerals as well, delay the imposition of ever more stringent(Stage VD water use restrictions (and associated costs or losses) for an additional two or three weeks. The availability of water from the new Hillsborough reservoir has been and continues to be a si 'ficant asset to this area at a time when water chemistry issues (different methods/chemicals used to disinfect treated water) and the water supply shortfalls experienced by almost all area utilities (excepting primarily the Mebane/Graham and Burlington systems) have severely impacted the ability of those water utilities to provide water for use here. County engineering staff anticipate that, :*ven the existing water level at Lake Orange (8'11"below spilling as of 8/23) and the current rate of fall in the water level (approximately 1"per day), Stage VI water use restrictions will be implemented on or before Wednesday, August 28th(absent significant rainfall in the interim). Water use restrictions already imposed on individual water customers of the Hillsborough and Orange-Alamance water systems (through Stage V of the County and Hillsborough drought ordinances)have prohibited all outside uses of water as well as the filling or refilling new or existing indoor or outdoor pools and have"strongly"encouraged the use of a number of techniques for conserving water for various indoor water uses. The provisions of the Eno River Capacity Use Agreement (analogous to the Stage VI level of the drought ordinance restrictions)call for the Town's no allocation to be reduced from 1,130, 000 gallons per day(gpd) to 680,000 gpd; Orange Alamance's allocation to be reduced from 620,000 gpd to 370,000 gpd; and Piedmont Mineral's allocation to be reduced fi-om 190,000 gpd to 0. However, Hillsborough can supply its full current demand(approximately 1,000,000 gpd)from its new reservoir for approximately 100 more days; and Orange-Alamance has been able—thus far—to obtain sufficient water,by pumping from its three wound water wells and purchasing treated water from both Mebane and Graham, to meet its current demand(approximately 1,000,000 gpd). Piedmont Minerals is in the worst shape in that it will only be able to obtain the untreated water it needs for its production processes by utilizing and recycling water stored in a few on-site ponds. All available information on Lake Orange indicates that that the imposition of Stage VI drought ordinance restrictions coincides with a remaining water storage capacity of 30 percent of the total capacity or approximately 140 million gallons. At the current rate of water demand(620,000 gpd for Orange-Alamance, 190,000 mgd for Piedmont Minerals), in-channel loses and evaporation,these numbers indicate that Lake Orange has approximately 100 days of storage left. Hillsborough,has not been using its Eno/Lake Orange allocation for the last three weeks,but will probably be using its allocation within the next week. A calculation incorporating the additional release would show the remaining days of storage capacity to be halved(50 days). From a practical standpoint,however,Lake Orange may have only between 20 and 30 days of storage left since it appears that a large portion of the remaining storage may be inaccessible. That is, the lowest gate in the intake structure(which opens upward and is intended to be the means for draining the lake) is now known to be malfunctioning to the point of inoperability(it appears to be binding so ti: tly that it cannot be raised). Furthermore, the gate also appears to be completely buried in the silt that has collected around the outside of the intake structure. Utile gate were opened and then could not be closed as a consequence of silt filling the lower