Minutes 04-06-2021 Virtual Business Meeting

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4 also be more prone to long term mental and physical health problems if you continue to expand economic development districts into a historically rural residential and agricultural area. Let us live up to the expectations of our community and do better. While on the topic of schools and working with Mebane I would like to mention that Mebane city has 300 new family homes in progress and are most likely to approve another 400 all on the Orange County side of the city. I would like to confirm that the school board and commissioners are aware of all these new developments that will affect Cheeks Elem and Gravelly middle. Mebane City said they invited Orange County officials to these conversations but no one has attended. I wanted to make sure you all of aware of this growth that will directly affect Orange County Schools. Lib Hutchby said she is a grandparent of 5, and has promised her grandchildren to protect the water, air, and soil. She thanked the Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) for its world water day proclamation. She said water does not just fall from the sky and it does not originate in plastic water bottles. She said humans are dependent on water to survive, just as they are dependent on oxygen. She said the Haw River is polluted with polyfluoroalkyl substances(PFAS), the "forever chemical". She said water across the nation contains harmful things, like arsenic and lead. She PFAS has such tight bonds that are almost indestructible, and are very dangerous. She asked if Orange County has tested its water for PFAS, and if the BOCC has a plan to protect the water in Seven Mile Creek. She asked if the BOCC will choose to protect water forever, or protect forever chemicals. Andrea Riley read the following statement: I've been wondering how Orange County citizens and the Orange County Board of Commissioners are going to be able to conserve our land and water resources for future generations — resources that are among Orange County's greatest assets, and that, once paved over or polluted, can be reclaimed only at great cost and with immense difficulty. I'm also wondering if the Commissioners are aware that there is now a contract on what was to be Buc- ee's land, and if they know what is planned for this land. And, are you also aware that significant portions of two of the areas being considered for development in the Buckhorn Area Plan are a part of the Critically Protected Watershed surrounding Seven Mile Creek? Will there be so much impervious ground cover in these developments that it produces water runoff and pollution of Seven Mile Creek, the Eno River, and the headwaters of the Neuse River, contaminating the drinking water of Hillsborough, Raleigh, and communities further downstream? And will it inhibit the recharge of the groundwater necessary to sustain Orange County wells and provide enough water during predicted droughts? Will the plants and animals dependent upon the Seven Mile Creek ecosystem survive? Shouldn't all land in a Critically Protected Watershed and upstream from Seven Mile Creek be conserved and given a zoning designation that protects it from environmental degradation, rather than be zoned for industrial development? And shouldn't Orange County begin to require permeable ground cover for all new developments in order to protect our water resources and land? The Board of County Commissioners needs to demand strict adherence by any future developments to the requirements established in our Comprehensive Land Use Plan, the LIDO, the Efland/Mebane Small Area Plan, and the Water and Sewer Management, Planning and Boundary Agreement (or, WASMPBA). These plans are rapidly becoming outdated, however, and have yet to be aligned with the plans of the Mebane Planning Department and Mebane City Council.