INC NEWS - FW: Jordan Lake Master Plan -- news coverage

[Pat Carstensen]

You can download the report and comment at 
http://www.saw.usace.army.mil/jordan/jordan_lake_master_plan_update.htm

Regards, pat

> Date: Wed, 12 Dec 2007 00:26:55 -0500
> From: ed.harrison at MINDSPRING.COM
> Subject: [NC-HEADWATERS-FORUM] Jordan Lake Master Plan -- news coverage
> To: NC-HEADWATERS-FORUM at LISTS.SIERRACLUB.ORG
> 
> This article appeared over the weekend in the Durham News section of the
> News & Observer.  The Corps of Engineers is the largest single owner of open
> space on the southern side of Durham and Chapel Hill. Jordan Lake and its
> surrounding property dominates eastern Chatham County.
> 
> 
> Plan lays out options for Jordan Lake's future
> 
> Author: Jim Wise
> Date: December 8, 2007
> Section: Durham News
> Page: A3
>  
> It took almost 14 years, but in November the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
> released an updated Master Plan for Jordan Lake and is taking public comment
> through Jan. 18. The plan is available at
> http://www.saw.usace.army.mil/jordan/jordan_lake_master_plan_update.htm.
>  
>    "We're getting a lot of comments through our Web site," Corps spokeswoman
> Carol Banaitis said this week. "That seems to be the preferred medium."
>  
>    This is the first update since the Corps' original master plan came out
> in 1982, and it reflects the not-inconsiderable change in the area's
> population, and changes in recreational tastes, since then.
>  
>   "Basically, it's a look at how things have evolved in the last 25 years,"
> Banaitis said.
>  
>    Among the its possibilities for Jordan Lake's future, the plan:
>  
>    - Points out that "walking for pleasure" has replaced "pleasure driving"
> as the most popular recreational activity at North Carolina parks over the
> past 30 years.
>  
>    - Describes 12 potential recreation areas which, if established, would
> almost double the lake's current 2,634 acres developed with swimming
> beaches, boat ramps, picnic tables, campgrounds and related facilities.
>  
>    - Suggests an interpreted driving tour of good spots for watching
> wildlife.
>  
>    - Recommends that the various authorities controlling land around the
> lake coordinate their agendas to resolving conflicts between developers and
> hunters.
>  
>    - Recommends a moratorium on development that puts more boats on the
> lake, because they have already reached a level "where the public is
> beginning to feel conflicts and where their perceptions of the experience
> are negatively impacted." The behavior of operators of personal watercraft
> (such as Jet Skis) is singled out as "the source of many of the conflicts."
>  
>    - Recommends, on the other hand, more development for non-motorized craft
> such as sailboats and paddle boats.
>  
>    - Lists natural areas and historic points that need protecting.
>  
>    The 188-page document is more descriptive than prescriptive, and some
> subjects receive surprisingly little mention. For example, water quality:
> Pollution of the lake, which supplies drinking water for several public
> systems (including Cary's and, during the current drought, Durham's), has
> been an acknowledged problem for years -- one the state Division of Water
> Quality is addressing with a controversial set of cleanup and protective
> measures.
>  
>    "There is a reference to [water quality], and it may need to be beefed
> up," Banaitis said. "We coordinate with local governments and the state ...
> as much as we can. Water quality is not necessarily an issue we can deal
> with by ourselves."
>  
>    Greg Schuster, open-space manager for Durham County, said water quality
> should benefit from good management practices the plan suggests for Corps
> recreational development. But Will Wilson, chairman of Durham's Open Space
> and Trails Commission, said he's concerned by a reference in the plan to
> "subleasing" land and the number of potential new sites.
>  
>    "It's not clear what they mean," he said. "If their idea of recreation
> involves a lot of impervious surfaces, then that reservoir is going to
> become parking-lot rinse water."
>  
>    Jordan Lake, filled in 1982, lies in Chatham and Durham counties with a
> surrounding recreation area spreading into Wake and extending north up the
> New Hope Creek basin in Durham beyond Interstate 40. At its normal operating
> level of 216 feet above sea level, its water covers 13,940 acres, and totals
> 215,130 acre-feet.
>  
>    Work on updating the Corps' master plan began in 1994, according to the
> report, and proceeded into the spring of 1996 before money became a problem,
> Schuster and Banaitis said. After years on the shelf, growth and building in
> the lake's environs moved the Corps to revive the project.
>  
>    The new plan went public at a public "listening session" Nov. 15,
> attended by about 60 people, Banaitis said. The public-comment period was
> originally supposed to last 30 days, but after some interested parties
> complained about its release during the holidays and its slow circulation,
> the Corps extended the comment period into mid-January.
> 
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