Minutes-11-02-2023-Business Meeting

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3 4. Proclamations/ Resolutions/Special Presentations a. Resolution Endorsing Consensus Principles II for Revised Falls Lake Rules The Board received a presentation and considered endorsing a resolution of support for the Upper Neuse River Basin Association (UNRBA) Consensus Principles II for the revised Falls Lake Rules (also referred to as the revised Falls Lake Nutrient Management Strategy). 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, Granville 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 Upper Neuse River Basin and the Falls Lake watershed (See Attachment 2). The Falls Lake Rules were adopted in 2011 to address nutrient loading (primarily nitrogen and phosphorus) in the Lake. Accordingly, the UNRBA began to work as a coordinating entity among the jurisdictions to address this effort. Issues related to the science behind these standards became apparent, and a goal identified to re-examine the Rules arose, working from an original set of consensus principles approved in February 2010 as a guide. 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 under the original approach. In addition, detailed evaluation of the Rules by water resources consultants 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 the County acted on its own, have ranged as high as $46 million over a 10-year period.) As a result, the UNRBA jurisdictions collectively worked to encourage a re-examination of the Rules, with an alternative method of addressing nutrient reductions for the Lake. Rather than trying to implement jurisdictional load reductions on their own—at great cost and with questionable results — the UNRBA and its member local governments have spent the last few years working with consultants and in coordination with the NC Division of Water Resources to find a preferable and "doable" alternative approach to meeting the nutrient reduction goals. To this end, the UNRBA developed an alternative option for achieving compliance with Stage I existing development nutrient load reductions that were required by the Rules. This alternative approach promoted a commitment to additional actions directed at reducing nutrient loading impacts from existing development, using both existing and new and innovative measures to improve the water conditions in the Lake. Titled the "Interim Alternative Implementation Approach" or IAIA, this program is considered interim because it only applies during the period between the time the alternative approach was initiated and when the Rules are readopted. The IAIA is based on voluntary participation of UNRBA members in the program and allows participating jurisdictions to achieve compliance with the Stage I requirements. Choosing not to participate in the IAIA would result in a jurisdiction having to comply on its own by developing a Stage I local program consistent with the adopted Rules and the Model Program as written. Phase I compliance without the IAIA would require installation of nutrient-removing measures in direct relation to Orange County's prior nutrient loading. In other words, the County would need to install enough nutrient-reduction ponds or similar Stormwater Control Measures (SCMs)to compensate for the amount of nitrogen and phosphorus added to Falls Lake from Orange County between