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z~ <br />VI. Recommendations and Furthell• Research Needs <br />Over the last seven years, the Water Resources Committee had the opportunity <br />to receive many presentations and examine much newfound data about the <br />County's ground water resources. Prior to this work, very little was known about <br />this resource that is often "out of sight, out of mind" until problems arise. <br />The pursuit of these data itself is one of the Commitkee's proudest legacies, and <br />the Committee commends the Board of Commissioners for having the foresight <br />to be proactive in investigating ground water issues in the County. <br />On several occasions, representatives from other jurisdictions and agencies in <br />North Carolina and around the nation have expressed admiration and ~at times, <br />surprise, that a local government with no known ground water problems would <br />undertake such a proactive review. In almost every case, it has been reaction to <br />ground water contamination or overuse of supplies that has generated the type <br />of resource analysis undertaken here. The County can be proud of its proactive <br />stance in evaluating ground water quantity and quality before problems arise. <br />The money spent to study our resource and obtain these data will undoubtedly <br />yield many benefits in years to come -benefits that will greatly outweigh the <br />cost of research. <br />As a result of this. work, the County has gone from little or no knowledge about <br />ground water resources to a substantial database on the resource, one that <br />grows every day as new well data is compiled and added to the database. The <br />three USGS cooperative reports provide a wealth of information about ground <br />water -information that may not make for exciting reading, but will be of great <br />value in years to come, as increased demand mounts pressure on 'our ground <br />water supplies. The value of having performed this analysis now, without the <br />pressure of a crisis, may be tenfold in the future. <br />As the Board of Commissioners consider this report, and the Commission <br />for the Environment takes up the mantle of considering policy <br />recommendations for ground water (and eventually integration of surface <br />water and ground water protection into a comprehensive Water Resources <br />Element of the Comprehensive Plan), the Water Resources Committee offers <br />the following recommendations: <br />20 <br />