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1 <br /> ORANGE COUNTY <br /> NORTH CAROLINA <br /> MEMORANDUM <br /> TO: Board of County Commissioners <br /> Bonnie Hammersley, Orange County Manager <br /> Travis Myren, Orange County Deputy Manager <br /> FROM: Christopher J. Sandt, P.E., Staff Engineer <br /> Craig N. Benedict, Planning Director <br /> DATE: August 30, 2021 <br /> SUBJECT: BOCC Information Item —Administrative Updates to the Eno River <br /> Voluntary Water Management Operations Plan (WMOP) <br /> This purpose of this Information Item is to inform the BOCC of proposed administrative <br /> updates to the Eno River Voluntary Water Management Operations Plan (WMOP). <br /> Background <br /> In 1988, Orange County became party to the Eno River Voluntary Water Management <br /> Operations Plan (WMOP). The WMOP was/is intended to preserve a minimum flow in <br /> the Eno River, even during times of drought, by restricting the amount of raw water that <br /> major water users (i.e. users who withdraw 100,000 gallons of raw water per day or more) <br /> can withdraw from the Eno River. The three major water users who are parties to the <br /> WMOP are the Town of Hillsborough (Town), Orange-Alamance Water System (OAWS) <br /> and Resco Products (formerly Piedmont Minerals). Orange County is party to the <br /> WMOP because at the time of the original development of the WMOP, Lake Orange <br /> (owned and operated by Orange County) was the only public water supply reservoir <br /> located within Orange County that was capable of controlling raw water releases from <br /> the dam. In the year 2000, the WMOP was revised/modified to incorporate the West <br /> Fork Eno Reservoir (WFER) into the WMOP. The WFER (owned and operated by the <br /> Town) is a public water supply reservoir located on the West Fork of the Eno River. <br /> The WMOP sets forth a minimum release schedule from both the Lake Orange dam <br /> (County-operated) and the West Fork Eno Reservoir dam (Town-operated) to provide <br /> the major water users with raw water based on allocations as specified within the <br /> WMOP. In addition, the WMOP mandates minimum in-stream flow within the Eno River <br /> during dry weather periods to help sustain aquatic ecosystem health. The North <br /> Carolina Department of Environmental Quality, Division of Water Resources (DWR) <br /> currently administers the WMOP. The Orange County Staff Engineer is responsible for <br /> monitoring daily Eno River flows and initiating/rescinding raw water withdrawal <br /> restrictions during low-flow (dry weather) periods. The Orange County Staff Engineer <br /> reviews raw water release data from Lake Orange, Lake Ben Johnston (a run-of-river <br /> dam owned and operated by the Town), Corporation Lake (a run-of-river dam owned <br /> and operated by OAWS), and the WFER to monitor established river flow and raw water <br /> withdrawal targets as specified in the WMOP. Allocated water withdrawers are <br /> responsible for monitoring and reporting their raw water withdrawals to DWR and the <br /> Page 1 of 2 <br />