Agenda - 09-16-2008 - 6a - Laserfiche WebLink

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31 George Lucier said that there are about 38 million gallons per day that have not been allocated out of Jordan Lake. He thinks that the allocation from Jordan Lake will only happen if it is a regional intake with agreement among the major parties. Mayor Foy asked what happens if Greensboro gets an allocation. Ed Kerwin said that he does not believe that Jordan Lake is in Greensboro's plans. The key players are the City of Durham, Chatham County, and OWASA or Orange County. Kevin Foy said that he keeps hearing of conflicting verbiage about Greensboro and Raleigh wanting the water, but there are only two sites. He does not know how this will work. George Lucier said that having an intake and plan on the west side of the lake would simplify things for Chatham County. There will have to be decisions about this soon. Chair Jacobs said that some concerns were raised about Durham's participation and Mayor Bill Bell was in attendance for that reason. Bill Strom said that he has heard different scenarios with OWASA's allocation. He asked if OWASA does not use its 5 million gallon allocation, would it lose the allocation. Ed Kerwin said that he does not know. He said that the State was clear that there will only be one west intake on the lake and it needs to be through joint arrangement. He said that he does not believe that OWASA needs Jordan Lake for daily demands, but more as a backup supply. Bill Strom said that it is ironic and disturbing that, as good conservers, it puts OWASA at risk of losing its 5 million gallon allocation. He said that something is wrong if their conservation and land use planning is causing them to lose their "insurance policy" of the 5 million gallon allocation. Chair Jacobs said that when this issue was first raised, he understood that as long as Orange County was a part of this facilitation, it was perceived that they would have access to this allocation. The idea is that there is a continuum of possibilities. He agreed with Bill Strom that there should be some type of strategy so that Orange County is not totally excluded from yet another water supply and it is protecting it for the benefit of others. Mayor Chilton said that his concern about all of this is that OWASA has taken a good look at its future water usage. He asked if anyone knew how long Jordan Lake would sustain the demands of the Triangle municipal governments in meeting the water supply demands in the future. He said that it does not seem likely to him that the additional water supply in Jordan Lake will sustain the Triangle's demand for water for anything like the length of time for which OWASA has planned for water in the future. He said that once local governments have tapped into Jordan Lake and are drawing water out daily, there will not be any additional options for more water in the future. He does not want to mistake Jordan Lake in the region for along-term solution to the water supply. He thinks that there is a water consumption problem and not a water supply problem. He said that, in looking at OWASA's own projections, there will not be a serious water problem for about 20 years, and this only depends on how fast the service area grows. If the area grows less rapidly and conserves more, then OWASA might not have to tap into Jordan Lake at all. He wants to commit to avoid having to go to Jordan Lake except for an extreme emergency. Dan Coleman said that he is hearing that Jordan Lake should not be a permanent part of the regular water diet. He said that he would like to suggest the possibility to be clearer in the intentions to not have even the emergency access to the lake. He said that the middle of a drought might be a really good time to do growth planning. Jim Ward asked Ed Kerwin about OWASA's confidence level and Ed Kerwin said that a lot of experts believe that the climate change in the southeast is that there will be more precipitation, but there have been two record droughts in the last five years. He said that he is a bit uneasy about these predictions and OWASA will be revisiting its water planning and will align its tools with the government entity tools. Jacqueline Gist said that Mayor Chilton's comments were very well thought out and on target. She wants to know how these comments interface with what OWASA is doing.