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1 <br />ORANGE COUNTY <br />BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS <br />WORKSESSION AGENDA ITEM ABSTRACT <br />Meeting Date: May 23, 2005 <br />Action Agenda <br />Item No. _~ <br />SUBJECT: Jordan Lake Watershed Nutrient Management Strategy and Rules <br />DEPARTMENT: Planning, Environment and PUBLIC HEARING: (Y/N) No <br />Resource Conservation <br />ATTACHMENT <br />1, Jordan Lake staff report <br />INFORMATION CONTACT: <br />Craig Benedict, 245-2575 <br />David Stancil, 245-2590 <br />Ren Ivins, 245-2586 <br />Will Autry, 245-2588 <br />TELEPHONE NUMBERS: <br />Hillsborough 732-8181 <br />Chapel Hill 968-4501 <br />Durham 688-7331 <br />Mebane 336-227-2031 <br />PURPOSE: To review a staff report on the proposal from the NC Division of Water Quality <br />(DWO) to implement a Nutrient Management Strategy and new Total Maximum Daily Load <br />(TMDL) rules in Jordan Lake Watershed, Formal comments on the proposal are due on May <br />31St <br />BACKGROUND: Over the last 20 years, water quality has become an issue for Jordan <br />Lake. The levels of chlorophyll a and subsequent algal growth from nutrients have created <br />concerns about eutrophication in the lake. Portions of Orange County within the Cape Fear <br />River basin (generally, the southern and western areas of the County including the towns of <br />Mebane, Chapel Hill and Carrboro and the Joint Planning Area) are within the Jordan Lake <br />watershed, In addition to serving as a recreational water body and a wildlife habitat <br />impoundment, Jordan Lake is a water supply reservoir with three jurisdictions drawing <br />drinking water and others with plans or allocations for the future, <br />Over the last five years, modeling of the lake's water quality was conducted that indicated the <br />need for management of nutrients. Specifically, the need to reduce the amount of nitrogen <br />and phosphorus in the lake was identified as a priority, <br />NCDWQ has proposed a strategy and TMDL rules that would nitrogen and phosphorus <br />reductions throughout the lake's watershed, The rules would be most stringent in the <br />subwatershed known as the Upper New Hope Arm, where new rules requiring 35% and 5% <br />reductions for nitrogen and phosphorous, respectively, would affect components from <br />