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MAR 15 1990 it <br /> Michele Dubow <br /> 124 West Stinson Street <br /> Chapel Hill, NC 27516 <br /> 919-942-6434 <br /> March 13, 1990 <br /> Moses Carey, Stephen Halkiotis, John Hartwell, <br /> Shirley Marshall, Don Wilhoit <br /> Orange County Board of Commissioners <br /> P.O. Box 8181 <br /> Hillsborough, NC 27278 <br /> Dear Board Members: <br /> I am writing to express my concerns about protecting University <br /> Lake watershed. I am a graduate student at UNC in Environmental <br /> Management and Protection, currently working on my masters thesis, <br /> which has to do with preventing nonpoint source water pollution. I <br /> am also the Water Quality Conservation Co—Chair for the Research <br /> Triangle Group of the Sierra Club (Orange and Chatham Counties). I <br /> have been living in the Chapel Hill—Carrboro area for three years and <br /> plan to remain here when I graduate. <br /> I strongly support protecting the watershed by adopting non--- <br /> structural controls. My views are closely in line with those <br /> expressed by Dr. Daniel Okun at the February 28th hearing; it is <br /> ludicrous and bad public policy to degrade our high—quality drinking <br /> water to the level of that consumed by some unfortunate communities, <br /> and treatment technology is not a substitute for protection of the <br /> source. In the long run, treating the water will prove to be much <br /> less reliable and much more expensive, just like structural controls <br /> such as retention basins. <br /> Furthermore, we have a legal obligation under North Carolina <br /> HB156 (passed June 23, 1989) to adopt strict controls if we want to <br /> maintain the high classification status of University Lake watershed. <br /> Minimum statewide watershed protection standards are now under <br /> development, and any changes made now in our zoning ordinances <br /> and/or requirements for structural controls may have to be amended <br /> later if they do not conform to the requirements of HB156. (I <br /> suspect that the proposed alternative strategies now under <br /> consideration are mostly compatible with what the Environmental <br /> Management Commission will promulgate by January 1, 1991, the deadline <br /> for the new water supply watershed classification system and <br /> statewide management regulations.) This important point was barely <br />