Agenda - 11-05-20; 7-a - Interim Alternative Implementation Approach (IAIA) – Upper Neuse River Basin Association (Falls Lake Rules)

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1 ORANGE COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS ACTION AGENDA ITEM ABSTRACT Meeting Date: November 5, 2020 Action Agenda Item No. 7-a SUBJECT: Interim Alternative Implementation Approach (IAIA) — Upper Neuse River Basin Association (Falls Lake Rules) DEPARTMENT: DEAPR, County Attorney, Planning and Inspections (Engineering) ATTACHMENT(S): 1 - Executive Summary of the IAIA, Core Principles and Timeline 2 - Falls Lake Watershed Map INFORMATION CONTACT: 3 - Orange County Watershed Maps Commissioner Sally Greene 245-2130 4— Under Separate Cover Commissioner Jamezetta Bedford 2130 UNRBA Background Information is David Stancil, 245-2522 available online at: Craig Benedict 245-2592 http://unrba.org/sites/default/files/URNBA Fast- James Bryan, 245-2319 Facts-Dec-2018 FINAL 190115 O.pdf Wesley Poole, 245-2513 http://unrba.org/sites/default/files/UNRBA Infogr Christopher Sandt, 245-2583 aphic-Dec-2018 FINAL 190115 O.pdf PURPOSE: To considerjoining the Upper Neuse River Basin Association's (UNRBA's) planned and coordinated multi-jurisdictional implementation approach to implementing Stage 1 of the Falls Lake Watershed Rules, promulgated by the N.C. Division of Water Resources. BACKGROUND: Orange County was a founding member of the UNRBA, which was created in the 1990's to coordinate mandatory watershed protection efforts among the jurisdictions of the Falls Lake watershed. Falls Lake (henceforth, "the Lake"), located in Durham and Wake counties, serves as the primary water supply source for Raleigh and many Wake County municipalities. Most of central, eastern and northeastern Orange County is located within the Falls Lake watershed (please see Attachments 2 and 3). As the Falls Lake Nutrient Management Strategy (henceforth, "the Rules") was adopted in 2011 to address nutrient loading in the Lake (primarily nitrogen and phosphorus), the UNRBA began to work as a coordinating entity among the jurisdictions to address this effort and to pursue a re- examination of the Rules. Implementation of the Rules, which would occur in two stages, has been estimated to cost the combined watershed jurisdictions over $1.5 billion in total to address. In addition, evaluation of the Rules by water quality consultants has determined that the proposed reductions as originally adopted are not technically feasible and that a new method is needed. (Prior estimates of Orange County's likely costs to address the Rules, if it acted on its own, have ranged as high as $46 million over a 10-year period.)