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I <br />O R A N G E C O U N T Y <br />BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS <br />ACTION AGENDA ITEM ABSTRACT <br />Meeting Date: March 9, 1992 <br />Action Agenda <br />Item # <br />SUBJECT: Declassification of Haw Creek <br />Reservoir and Watershed <br />DEPARTMENT: County Manager PUBLIC HEARING: Yes X No <br />ATTACHMENT(S); INFORMATION CONTACT: County Engineer <br />Letter from DEM <br />Agreement to abandon watershed <br />Letter to DEM from Hillsborough TELEPHONE NUMBERS: <br />Draft Resolution Hillsborough - 732 -8181 <br />Copy of BOCC minutes 11/11/68 Durham - 688 -7331 <br />Letter to BOCC from Orange /Alain. Mebane - 227 -2031 <br />Chapel Hill - 967 - 9251/968 -4501 <br />PURPOSE; To present to the BOCC a draft resolution, for approval and <br />enactment, requesting that the NC Environmental Management <br />Commission deny the petition of the Orange /Alamance Water <br />System to de- classify the Haw Creek watershed. <br />BACKGROUND: Effective in 1989, Orange County. Hillsborough, Orange - <br />Alamance. Piedmont Minerals and the NC Division of Water <br />Resources entered into a Capacity Use Agreement for the <br />purpose of conserving the water supplies available from the <br />upper Eno River and to maintain the instream flow in the <br />portion of the Eno River below Hillsborough. Orange County <br />entered into the Capacity Use Agreement with the knowledge <br />and understanding that approximately 75 percent (600,000 <br />gallons per day) of Orange- Alamance's water use was serving <br />customers in the Haw River basin in Alamance County. <br />Orange County was also aware that Orange- Alamance was <br />historically committed to obtaining water supplies other <br />than the Eno River to supply it Alamance County customers. <br />This commitment was outlined in two letters from Orange <br />Alamance to the Orange County BOCC in 1968. One letter <br />contained promises to the effect that Orange- Alamance would <br />reduce its dependency on the use of Eno River water by <br />purchasing water from Graham to supply its Alamance County <br />customers whenever the Eno had to be supplemented by <br />releases from Lake Orange. A second letter indicated that <br />Orange - Alamance would develop areservoir and water <br />treatment plant in the Haw Creek basin to supply its water <br />customers in the Haw basin. <br />In the fall of 1991, the Orange - Alamance Water System <br />entered into an agreement with the Towns of Graham and <br />Mebane allowing Orange - Alamance to purchase water from <br />