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SUNDAY NOVEMBER 29 2015 tt° . CHAPELHILLNEWS.COM i All,, s r; Y r f .. r rat res ' ao' W..� rM � w � z ,� £r � �, „ � �r � °. F•C r.� i IJ state has all the data work BY CRAIG JARVIS cjarvis@newsobserver.com RALEIGH Experimental whirling devices floating in Jordan Lake have not significant- ly improved water quality after a year in operation. State environmental regulators say the effec- tiveness of the 36 Solar- Bees won't be fully known until the end of a four - year pilot program. They say it's too early to draw any conclusions from a preliminary report issued last month. There is not enough data for a definitive con- clusion, Sarah Young, a spokeswoman for the N.C. Department of Envi- ronmental Quality, said Tuesday. Environmentalists say the state already knows as much as it needs to: The devices don't clean up pollution. "Any sensible decision would be to pull the plug on this experiment now and get serious about restoring water quality in Jordan Lake," Elaine Chiosso of the Haw River Assembly said Tuesday. Jordan Lake provides drinking water for 300,000 residents in and beyond the Triangle. It has been designated un- der the federal Clean Water Act as impaired CHUCK LIDDY 2014 NEWS & OBSERVER FILE PHOTO One of the 36 SolarBee units deployed on Jordan Lake. because most of the time it exceeds state standards for chlorophyll a, the green pigment in algae and plants. A number of state and local political officehold- ers representing commu- nities upstream, which are the sources of most of the pollution, have fought against stringent restric- tions that the General Assembly put in place in 2009, suggesting the additional costs that would be imposed on development would be harmful. The legislature has delayed implementa- tion of those restrictions four times, beginning with the Republican take- over of the General As- sembly. It has also caused a split among Republican legis- lators, with those repre- senting Cary and other downstream communities opposed to the unproven technology now deployed on the lake. The McCrory adminis- tration has said malting Jordan Lake healthful for drinking water, as well as for recreation, is a top priority. Last year, state regulators told legislators that SolarBees would be the most cost - effective option but suggested trying a few new tech- nologies on a small scale to see what works the best. Legislators went with the SolarBees, which stir algae in the water in an effort to disperse and, reduce pollution. The first -year study focused on two arms of Jordan Lake: Morgan Creek and the Haw River. "These preliminary results indicate that nutri- ent related water quality conditions did not signif -. icantly improve in areas of the lake where Solar- Bees were deployed," said the report by the state Division of Water Quality; which was sent to the General Assembly on Oct. 1. The devices had a "sub- tle" performance record in a pilot project in Cabar- rus County in 2007, ac- cording to a study by UNC Charlotte, which recommended not using them. In June, state envi- ronmental regulators said the SolarBee project was late getting started and so only one summer had been tested; they had hoped to test two full summers. Algae blooms more rapidly in the sum - mer. Sen. Rick Gunn, a Bur - lington Republican who supports the experiment, said Tuesday that he agrees with regulators that it's`too soon to tell. "We've made a signif- icant investment that pales in comparison to the hundreds of millions of dollars that existing Jor- dan Lake rules would cost municipalities," Gunn said. "I think, while we did not see movement yet, one summer is not long enough to see if there's a positive trend." Environmentalists have said from the beginning that the SolarBees would be ineffective and that the pilot program would only delay addressing the source of pollution from upstream runoff and old wastewater treatment plants. Advocates said that one year of data was sufficient and that the results were not surpris Ing. "If this was just a nice little science experiment that didn't have an impact on anyone's life, then it might be fine to say keep doing this for several years," Chiosso said. "Meanwhile, all this pol- lution keeps going into Jordan Lake without the restrictions the Jordan Lake rules would have provided." Other environmental groups, like the North Carolina chapter of the Sierra Club, are con- cerned that a deregula- tion law enacted this year could have the effect of preventing local govern- ments from enforcing ordinances they have adopted to comply with, the Jordan Lake rules. The Haw River passes through eight counties. This year, the General Assembly extended what was initially a one -year trial through October 2018. Legislators also gave $1.5 million from the Clean Water Manage- ment Trust ]Fund to the Department of Envi- ronmental Quality to continue the project. The state has already spent $1.6 million on the Solar- Bees. The devices were pro- vided by a company on a no -bid contract. The com- pany says its data shows more success than the state's. Craig Jarvis: 919- 829 -4576, @Craigj NandO