Agenda - 08-29-2002 - Agenda - Laserfiche WebLink

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MEMORANDUM TO: County Commissioners COPIES: Jahn Link, County Manager Itod Visser, Assistant County Manager FROM: Paul Thames, PE, County Engineer DATE: August 23, 2002 SUBJECT: Drought and drought response related activities in Orange County As per the request of the BOCC, the fallowing information is provided relative to the drought currently affecting Orange County (as well as the central portions of North and South Carolina, Georgia and Virginia). Orange County and central North Carolina are in the fourth year of below normal rainfall (drought) conditions. The impact of the below normal rainfall finally became readily noticeable to the general public in the spring of 2002 when local surface water supply reservoirs failed to completely refill over the winter or - as in the case of Lake Orange -refilled very late in the season. Lake Orange, which normally refills by Wald to late January did not completely fill until mid April. OWASA's Cane Creek reservoir and Durham's reservoir never completely refilled. Other indicators of the effects of the drought are: 1) record law stream flows for the time of year {80% percent of streams have had less than 10% of normal seasonal stream flow); and 2) water levels measured at well over SO°lo of USGS groundwater level monitoring wells in central North Carolina are either lower than the previous record low levels or are approaching record low levels. The outlook for the end of the drought or the lessening of drought conditions is unclear. While some meteorologists have hypothesized that the area is in the fourth year of a seven-year drought cycle, others predict anear-term (winter of 2002) return to slightly wetter than normal weather conditions as a result of a mild E1 Nino climatic condition. However, if area's weather pattern fellows the usual wet/dry climatic conditions for the remainder of 2002, Orange County can expect even drier weather in the sort term (the area's driest part of the year runs from mid September to mid-November). In the typical years, relief from seasonal dry conditions comes with the winter rains begin at some point between late November and mid-January. PTistorically, Orange County has occasionally seen some relief during the very dry season by way of significant rainfall quantities generated by hurricanes, tropical depressions and nor'easters. The water supply situation for the portion of central Orange County (Hillsborough and Efland area) that depends on water from the Eno River has been much worse than usual in some ways and better in others. That is, conditions involving normal instream flow and remaining water storage in Lake Orange have been worse than have been experienced since the development of Lake Orange in the early i 970's. Initiation of water releases from Lake Orange and the implementation of withdrawal and customer use restrictions associated with the County's (and Town of Hillsborough) draught ordinance and the Eno River Capacity Use Agreement began approximately ten weeks earlier than normal. Accordingly, the water level in Lake Orange is at a historic law (far any time of year). This, in turn, means that water