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this is one of the most successful programs in the County. She said that the most recent <br /> project includes the value-added processing center. She said that the future for this program is <br /> unlimited and she asked the County Commissioners to please return the Lands Legacy and <br /> conservation easements to a separate line item. She said that, under no circumstances should <br /> ERCD be included in the reorganization plan proposed by the County Manager. <br /> Ken Terlep provided a prepared statement to the County Commissioners: <br /> Comments to the Orange County Commission on November 18, 2008 in support of <br /> the funding of equipment to be installed at Lake Orange to Control / Measure Lake <br /> Orange Water Releases <br /> Hello. I'm Ken Terlep. I live in Cedar Grove and I'm speaking on behalf of the Friends of <br /> Lake Orange in support of the funding of equipment for Lake Orange to control and <br /> measurement equipment for water releases <br /> The Friends of Lake Orange is a newly formed civic association that currently represents well <br /> over 100 Orange County property owners who have common interests related to the water <br /> management, the ecology, recreation rights, and other issues associated with Lake Orange <br /> and its adjacent properties. <br /> Our members have become increasingly concerned with repeated and extreme 'drawdowns' of <br /> Lake Orange — in part due to outdated water management practices. Excessive and <br /> UNMETERED releases from Lake Orange are wasteful and contribute to significant loss of <br /> water level as was dramatically visible in 2002, 2005 and 2007. <br /> Current management practices for water releases from Lake Orange must be updated <br /> immediately to add modern equipment to prevent the significant risk of loss of potential <br /> drinking water and loss of lake level. The Friends of Lake Orange requests that the <br /> Commission immediately approve the needed $55,000 capital funds so that the <br /> equipment to remotely control and measure water releases can be installed prior to June <br /> of 2009. This will allow use of the equipment in the summer/fall timeframe which is the <br /> time period when retention of water for future use is most critical and when important <br /> discharge data can be obtained to permit use in the Model Calibration for Lake Orange <br /> as part of the Neuse River Basin Model Development effort. <br /> The Town of Hillsborough recognizes the critical nature of this requirement and has <br /> committed $25,000 toward the purchase of the equipment which will cost $80,000 total. <br /> As further evidence of the recognition of the importance of this equipment, we have <br /> previously submitted a Petition to the Commission on 10/21/08 signed by 265 Orange <br /> County citizens who are concerned with the current lack of control of water releases and <br /> who support the request to install the equipment. <br /> 1. Currently, the method to attempt to obtain targeted releases of water is for an <br /> operator to physically drive to Lake Orange and to manually turn a valve at the <br /> release tower. There is no way to directly measure the actual discharge amount from <br /> the reservoir since a previously installed measurement device (weir) has been broken <br /> for several years. There is a strong likelihood of releasing millions of gallons of water <br /> each month in excess of the targeted amount. By comparison, the WFER is equipped <br /> with an electrically and remotely controlled valve system and a remotely readable <br /> measurement gage to observe the actual discharge flow. Similar equipment must be <br />