Orange County NC Website
Browse       Search
interest in water conservation in the near term) and Orange - Alamance have developed a <br />sufficient water supply availability (generally at significant impact to their water rates) to <br />meet their demands for at least the near term, regardless of the outcome of County - <br />initiated water conservation /drought ordinances or other efforts. <br />Conclusion <br />While developing a comprehensive drought ordinance has been an ideal of the BOCC, it <br />appears to be increasingly unlikely that the County will be able to create and adopt an <br />ordinance specifying conditions and restrictions that address the widely varying conditions <br />applicable to the OWASA, Hillsborough and Orange - Alamance water supplies. The <br />process developed by OWASA to determine the water use restrictions applicable to its <br />customers depends on a complex probabilistic risk - assessment model developed by its <br />own staff (using historic stream flow /rainfall data in combination with demand /draw <br />down /evaporative loss /storage projections). Given that Hillsborough has two water supply <br />sources - one of which is shared by two other large scale users (and perhaps more given <br />water use by the upstream turf farm) and regulated by the Capacity Use Agreement and a <br />desire /need to sell more rather than less water, it is unlikely that a model or process <br />similar to those used by OWASA would be acceptable to or practical for the Town. Given <br />that Orange - Alamance has its Eno supply, three high -yield wells, contracts to purchase <br />significant quantities of treated water, and 60% of its customer base outside of Orange <br />County, it is questionable how much effect a County water use ordinance has on Orange - <br />Alamance's Eno River demand under any circumstances. <br />The water conservation goals of the BOCC are likewise in some degree of conflict with a <br />Town of Hillsborough short -term goal of generating greater use of its water resources. <br />This may be a conflict of limited duration as the Town recognizes that it will need to <br />become more conservative with its water resources as its current excess capacity is <br />exhausted. Town staff has also indicated the Town's recognition of the need to become <br />more conservative than indicated by the drought ordinance proposal in the event that the <br />onset of a water supply shortfall occurs early in the season (as with the 2002 drought) as <br />opposed to late in the season (as is the norm). <br />It appears that in the near term, Orange County should focus its water conservation efforts <br />on continuing to: a) monitor and comply with the limitations imposed by the Eno River <br />Capacity Use Agreement; and b) educate water consumers — those using well -water in <br />addition to those connected to municipal water systems — as to water conservation <br />technology (low flow toilets, shower heads, leak detection, rain barrels) and low water <br />demand or xeriscaped ornamental landscaping and planting techniques. The County's <br />drought ordinance would become less of a tool for water conservation efforts in the near <br />term in that it would basically allow each water provider to dictate water use restrictions for <br />its own customers. The new ordinance could essentially follow the concept of the existing <br />ordinance by providing one set of conditions for the customers of the OWASA system and <br />another set applicable to Hillsborough and Orange- Alamance customers. <br />draft 1 fl <br />