Agenda - 01-31-1991 - Laserfiche WebLink

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I To establish a ro riate water pp p policies for regional and local areas -- including consolidation or reorganization of domestic water supply within the framework of national needs, comprehensive studies should be made to ensure planning for -the most economical use of water for domestic industrial and other purposes and to prevent waste." Those in North Carolina who would indicate that we have a serious water supply problem that needs to be addressed relative to interbasin transfer have not taken a good look at the facts regarding Water Resources in North Carolina. I would submit to you that "if it ain't broke, don't fix it." In North Carolina the average annual runoff reported by the U.S. Geological Survey in 1985 was 47.6 billion gallons per day. Of this runoff, approximately 20 billion gallons per day flowed into other states and 27.6 billion gallons per day flowed through North Carolina into the ocean. During 1985, there was approximately 7.9 billion gallons per day (16.6%) was withdrawn from North Carolina streams and rivers. Of this volume of water, approximately 0.4 billion gallons per day (5.690 was consumed and not returned to the steams and approximately 7.5 billion gallons per day (94.4%) was returned to the these streams. The approximately 0.4 billion gallons of water which was consumed, represents only 0.9% of the total runoff for -North Carolina. These consumptive losses • were attributed to the following: 0.33% for agriculture use, 0.07% for thermoelectric power use, 0.17% for industrial use and 0.33% for domestic and commercial uses. As you can see from the above information, North Carolina is a very water rich state. Except as outlined in the AWWA policy, there should not be any water crisis in North Carolina for a very long time and the issue of interbasin transfer cannot be demonstrated to.be of a serious enough issue to warrant immediate attention. The proposed Bill to be considered by the 1991 Legislature would regulate transfers of water from one "river" basin to another. In the Bill, a river means any body of water bearing the designation "river" on the latest edition of the appropriate U.S. Geological Survey 7.5 minute quadrangle map. A river basin means the area drained by a river and its - ,tributaries or through a specified point on a river, as determined by the commission. A transfer means the withdrawal, diversion, or pumping of surface water from one river basin and the use or discharge of all or any part of the water in a basin different from the origin. The proposed Bill would require a permit for'any transfer of 1 MGD or more and would require that all transfers no matter what there size that are less than 1 MGD be registered with the Commission. Although not clear in the Bill, it is assumed that references to the Commission means the Environmental Management Commission. AEk K