Orange County NC Website
3 <br />MEMORANDUM <br />TO: County Commissioners <br />John Link, County Manager <br />COPIES: Ed Kerwin, Executive Director, OWASA <br />FROM: Paul Thames, PE, County Engineer <br />DATE: Mazch 21, 2001 <br />SUBJECT: Orange County and OWASA Raw Water Allocations from Jordan Lake Allocation <br />The following information relative to the raw water allocation/re-allocation process and history for <br />OWASA and Orange County is provided as per the request of the BOCC. <br />The Environmental Management Commission is currently conducting a thud round of allocation <br />requests for raw water supplies from Jordan Lake. Allocations have thus far been requested from as far <br />away from Jordan Lake as Greensboro and Fayetteville. The total allocations requested have far <br />exceeded the rated 100 million gallon per day (mgd) water supply capacity of Jordan Lake: In the third <br />round allocation process, all entities that have a Level R allocation (for future withdrawals) are required <br />to reapply to maintain their existing allocations. Furthermore, round 3 applications - unlike the initial <br />round 1 application - aze required to provide detailed water demand and water supply capacity <br />projections as justification for requested allocations. <br />In the round 1 allocation request process of July 1988, Orange and Chatham Counties, the Town of <br />Hillsborough, OWASA and the Orange Alamance Water system submitted a joint application to the NC <br />Environmental Management Commission (EMC) far Level I (immediate withdrawals) and Level II <br />(future withdrawals) raw water allocations. The total Level I allocation request for 4.0 (mgd) came from <br />Chatham County. The Level II allocation requests totaled 38.3 mgd. Eventually, the EMC awarded <br />Chatham the 4.0 mgd Level I allocation it requested and 2.0 of the 6.0 mgd Level II allocation it <br />requested. The other Level II allocations were: OWASA - 10 of 19 mgd requested, Hillsborough - 5.5 of <br />6.0 mgd requested, Orange-Alamance - 3.5 of 4.0 mgd requested and Orange County - 1.0 of 1.3 mgd <br />requested. <br />OWASA's commitment to its allocation of the Jordan Lake water supply went so far as its purchase, in <br />the eazly 1990's, of 125 acres of land adjacent to Jordan Lake at the point identified as the best raw <br />water intake site on the west side of the lake. It was supposed at the time of the purchase that the site <br />could be used to accommodate all of the infrastructure necessary to withdraw, treat and distribute <br />(pump) the water allocations for all of those entities who were party to the joint application. However, <br />since the time of the joint allocation request and OWASA's purchase of the Jordan Lake property, the <br />circumstances relating to a potential partnership among those who submitted the joint allocation request <br />have changed drastically. Hillsborough and Orange-Alamance relinquished their allocations in 1993 <br />when the EMC and the NC Division of Water Resources began the process of billing the pro rata costs <br />of developing and maintaining the portion of Jordan Lake dedicated to raw water supply to those entities <br />holding allocations (Orange County pays about $2,000 per year to preserve its allocation). Chatham <br />