Agenda - 02-28-1990 - Laserfiche WebLink

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PAGE 7 investment and livelihood is in the property they own. He asked that the people be treated fair and that the burden and the benefit be balanced with the benefit going to the people who drink the water. The people in the watershed cannot drink the water nor can they use the sewage system that OWASA provides. He feels the issue of compensation should be addressed. The loss of value must be taken into consideration. It could be done through the transfer of development rights. He asked that the impervious surface ratios come close to where they were when they began their development. He commended the County Planning Staff for the job they do. B. R HACKNEY, resident in the watershed, spoke against the proposed regulations. His family has lived on this land for six generations. He feels that rural residents have no political representation on OWASA, on the Orange/Chatham Work Group, Orange County Commissioners or the Planning Board. He feels the rural residents will receive no benefit nor compensation for these restrictions. The costs are being transferred from the users of OWASA services to those who do not and cannot use those services. The main goal is protection of water quality and no one knows what water quality is. There is no provision for improvement of water quality. CDM clearly indicates that the only measure to improve the water quality would be the implementation of regional detention ponds maintained by an official body -- not the onsite units maintained by developers as recommended by Orange County. This contradicts CDM which recommended a regional approach and detention ponds. The land use controls would at best maintain the status of the present quality. This has not been given enough attention. University Lake has a safe yield of 3mgd during the rainy season and is not the main water supply. Cane Creek provides lOmgd. He made reference to the Rural Character Study and the fact that the report has not yet been finalized. JOHNNY KENNEDY stated that there are a lot of poor people going to be pushed out of this County, home, land and everything they have worked for. He feels that the County Commissioners and OWASA want to take the easy way out on about everything they do. He did a study on the overview of the CDM report. To implement the structural controls to protect the drinking water, it would cost each customer .0003 cents per gallon which he feels is no cost. He suggested that the University of North Carolina pay part of this cost instead of putting all the restrictions on all the citizens in Orange County who are depending on the land for their livelihood. DANIEL A. OKUN, an engineer in the water supply field, stated that protection of the water supply is not unique to Orange County but is happening everywhere in the United States. He prefers the recommendation of the five acres without structural controls because the consulting engineers did not use as an objective a non-degradation approach. They recognized that there would be some continued degradation. The primary principle used by all water agencies in protecting the water supply is that the water supply should be taken from the best available source and every effort should be made to protect it. Treatment technology is not a substitute for protection of the source. He recognizes their are problems and complaints about changing the rules in the middle of the game. Unfortunately, those who drink the water are having to change in the middle of the game. Those who are responsible for providing drinking water for communities are themselves facing changing requirements. The Smithfields are the very cities in trouble. He realizes that this is a divided issue. Those who have stated that there will be an economic impact have not been studying what is actually occurring. In every court case where the developer has sued because of a loss of value, the courts have concluded that not only do jurisdictions have the right to protect the public health but that there has been no loss in value. MARGARET HOLTONs advocate for the protection of water, endorsed the statements made by Mr. Okun. She read a prepared statement which is attached to these minutes as "EXHIBIT B".