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Orange County Commission for the Environment <br /> <br />Meeting Summary <br />September 11, 2017 <br />Solid Waste Management Administration Building, Eubanks Road, Chapel Hill <br /> <br />Present: Lynne Gronback (Chair), Bill Kaiser (Vice Chair), May Becker, Jeremy Marzuola, Matt <br />Crook <br />Absent: Peter Cada, Bill Newby, Jeanette O'Connor, Alan Parry, Sheila Thomas-Ambat, Marshall <br />Gray <br /> <br />Staff: Tom Davis, Brennan Bouma, Kim Livingston <br /> I. Call to Order <br /> Chair Gronback called the meeting to order at 7:34. <br /> <br />II. Additions or Changes to Agenda <br /> None <br /> <br />III. Approval of Draft Minutes from April 10, 2017. Bill Kaiser motioned to approve the minutes as <br />written. Marshall Gray seconded. Minutes were approved unanimously. <br /> <br />IV. Guest Presentations – OWASA Water Emergency - Ed Kerwin <br /> Key Lessons: <br /> Ed Kerwin presented on the key lessons OWASA learned in reviewing what happened during the water <br />emergency. Among these lessons were: Be prepared locally and regionally for the “what-ifs”, <br />Interconnection of drinking water systems is essential for resiliency, the National Incident Management <br />System (NIMS) and your local and regional partners are essential, Communications should be open, <br />honest and transparent. This is essential for maintaining/restoring trust and confidence. Beyond OWASA’s <br />communications to their 21,000 customers, OC Alerts was a key resource for communications. So was the <br />local news media. <br /> <br /> Water sources and redundancy: <br /> OWASA has several redundant sources of water including reclaimed water, but only one drinking water <br />treatment plant. Jordan Lake and other interconnections are there for long droughts and other <br />emergencies. For the rock quarry reservoir, mining will stop in 2030 and then the quarry will be available <br />as well as a small backup source. It can take 2-3 days to bring in water from Hillsborough since the 8 <br />miles of pipe is rarely used and they need to test for chlorine residuals and bacteria before it can be used. <br />OWASA can almost bring in the whole daily winter demand from Durham/Jordan Lake if needed. <br /> <br /> Water efficiency and conservation techniques have also been an important factor to consider in long-term <br />water supply planning. OWASA is selling roughly the same amount of water now than they did 20 years <br />ago even though their customer base has doubled. <br /> <br /> Overview of what happened: <br /> The source of the fluoride was a malfunction of equipment not responding to the plant’s controls even <br />though it said that it had. There was someone who could have caught the issue 1.5 hours earlier than <br />they did, but it would probably not have changed the result of the decision to stop the plant.