Agenda - 10-21-2003-8i - Laserfiche WebLink

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ORANGE COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS ACTION AGENDA ITEM ABSTRACT Meeting Date: October 21, 2003 Action Agenda' Item No. ~ - ~ SUBJECT: Re-authorization of County Participation in the Triangle Area Water Supply Monitoring Project DEPARTMENT: County Manager PUBLIC HEARING: (Y/N) No ATTACHMENT(S): Packet from TJCOG with Interlocal Agreement and Scope of Work INFORMATION CONTACT: Paul Thames, County Engineer, ext. 2300 TELEPHONE NUMBERS: Hillsborough 732-8181 Chapel Hill 968-4501 Durham 688-7331 Mebane 336-227-2031 PURPOSE: To present to the BOCC, for its approval and ratification, a resolution that both amends the interlocal agreement governing the Triangle Water Supply Monitoring Project and re-authorizes continuing County participation in the project. BACKGROUND: In 1988, Orange County and a number of other Triangle-area local governments and agencies involved in providing drinking water derived from surface waters entered into an interlocal agreement to fund a project designed to acquire water quality data on the area's raw water supplies. These governments and agencies contracted with Triangle J Council of Governments and the US Geological Survey (USGS) to conduct a three year program of: a) sampling, monitoring and analyzing (laboratory analysis) the regions raw water supplies (rivers, lakes and reservoirs); and b) evaluating the significance of the findings in terms of detecting and explicating trends in the improvement or decline in water quality. The initial three years (Phase 1) of the project were completed in 1991. At the time, data analysis indicated that existing water quality was generally higher than anticipated. However, the governments and agencies participating in the project concluded that much more needed to be learned about the area's water supply quality and actual and potential sources of water quality impact. Accordingly, the project participants agreed to extend the project (Phase 2) for an additional four years and modified/re-authorized the interlocal agreement at unchanged funding levels. In 1995, the governments and agencies (with the exception of the City of Raleigh, the project's largest funding contributor at the time) again modified/re-authorized the project (Phase 3) for four additional years with new and additional monitoring, data collection and evaluation goals. In 1999, the project was re-authorized yet again for fours years with slight modifications (Phase IV). Throughout the years of re-authorizing successive phases of the project, the County's funding contribution increased only slightly, never exceeding $3,500 per year ($2,700 net cost