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3 <br />MEMORANDUM <br />TO: County Commissioners <br />COPIES: John Link, County Manager <br />Geof Gledhill, County Attorney <br />Craig Benedict, Planning Director <br />FROM: Paul Thames, PE, County Engineer <br />DATE: September 8, 2000 <br />SLTSJECT: Orange-Alamance Water System, capacity and background issues <br />ATTACHMENTS: Articles of Incorporation, Amended Articles of Incorporations, Bylaws, <br />map of waterlines in Orange County <br />This report is intended to provide general background information on the Orange-Alamance <br />Water System in terms of its history and organization as well as information on the system's <br />existing ar current water supply capacity. Furthermore, this report will attempt to address the <br />twelve specific questions posed by Commissioner Jacobs (see Attachment "A"). Information <br />contained in this report is based on conversations between the County Engineer and Orange- <br />Alamance staff and NC Public Water Supply Branch staff and on documents such as the Articles <br />of Incorporation far and Bylaws of the Orange-Alamance Water System. <br />General <br />The Orange Alamance Water System is a perpetual non-profit rural membership corporation that <br />is classified under North Carolina health/environmental health statutes as a public water supply <br />utility. It was officially incorporated in September, 1965 and began operation in August 1968. <br />The system's original 100,000 gallon per day (gpd) demand from 360 customers in Orange and <br />Alamance Counties was met by way of purchase of treated water from the City of Mebane, <br />supplied by way of an interconnection between the two distribution systems. Orange- <br />Alamance's own 1.0 million gallon per day (mgd) capacity water treatment plant on the Eno <br />River began operation in June 1969. The creation of the Orange-Alamance system was <br />originally the concept of Wiley B. Perry, one of the founding members of the board of directors. <br />According to newspaper accounts of the day, Mr. Perry was trying to acquire water utility service <br />for his Perry Hills subdivision development. He found that it was neazly as easy to obtain <br />Farmers Home loans and grants to build an entire water system as it was to acquire funding for <br />an extension of utility service from the Town of Mebane water system. <br />