[Durham INC] Jordan Lake Rules impact on City

[Tina]

Protecting the watersupply watershed is not a new concept for Durham.
Over 20 years ago, Treyburn was built in the watershed of Little River
Reservoir.  Durham quickly realized the negative impacts to their own
watersupply and restricted future developments in the critical and
non-critical watershed of Lake Michie and Little River.
http://www.durhamnc.gov/departments/planning/udo/pdf/udo_08.pdf
(see page 25, Sec. 8.7.2,  "Watershed Protection Overlay Standards",
Subsec. B, "Impervious Surface Limits")
 
Durham is unique in many ways.  Even our soils are unique.  About 2/3 of
Durham County is in the Triassic Basin.  Quick geology lesson:   Most of
Durham is on a fault line called the Jonesboro Fault.  Millions of years
ago, this fault line opened up.  This fault filled in with fine sediment
during the Triassic period.  This sediment is highly erosive and
impermeable.  There are 4 hydrologic soil groups: A, B, C, and D.  A is
the best and D is the worst.  Most of Durham is C and D.  This is why
Durham is having so many problems with soil and erosion issues.  You
can't engineer away the geology of the soils.   
 
Another issue for Durham is the fact that almost all of Durham is water
supply watershed.  The only area that isn't, is downtown Durham.  North
Durham is water supply watershed for Lake Michie and Little River
(Durham's water supply), South Durham is water supply watershed for
Jordan (water supply for Cary, Chatham and now Durham), and South East
Durham is water supply water shed for Falls Lake (water supply for
Raleigh).  
 
What happens when you develop water supply watershed with highly erosive
soils?  Jordan Lake and Falls Lake are on the 303d list and are impaired
for chlorophyll a (excess nutrients feed algae) and turbidity
(sediment).  Heavy rains carry nutrients such as nitrogen and
phosphorous to nearby tributaries and streams via stormwater runoff.  A
characteristic of nitrogen is that it binds to soil.  The tributaries
carry sediment and nutrients to the lakes, and the nitrogen releases
into the water which feeds algae growth.  
 
Where does the nitrogen come from?  Nitrogen is used for fertilizer to
promote the growth of lawns.  Under current regulations, watershed land
can be developed at 24 to 70% impervious surface in the protected areas.
24% doesn't sound like much, but it covers a lot of area.  Land is
generally mass graded, so there is quite a bit of land to fertilize to
have nice neighborhood lawns.  Developers use a formula to figure how
much nitrogen from their development will find its way to the streams.
You can look at a Stormwater Impact Analysis on a development and you
can see how many pounds of nitrogen per acre per year a development
contributes.  
 
The state allows developments to produce 3.6 pounds of nitrogen per acre
per year.  However, the state allows a developer to buy down nitrogen
credits up to 6 POUNDS OF NITROGEN per acre per year.  A developer pays
a one time fee to the NCEEP where it goes to a general fund, not
necessarily to fix the pollution issues the development will cause.  It
is beneficial to the developer to just pay the fee, so they can build
more houses per acre and increase profit.  Another term for this is "pay
to pollute".  Many developments exceed the 3.6 pounds of nitrogen per
acre per year..when you start adding up the numbers, a lot of nitrogen
is finding its way to the tributaries and lakes.  
 
There has been talk that a lot of nitrogen in Jordan Lake has come from
agriculture in Alamance County.  NC State did a study and found that
farms don't contribute to problems as much as previously thought.  You
can read more at
http://h2o.enr.state.nc.us/nps/documents/DelineatingAgricultureintheLake
JordanRiverBasin-REVISED-DeannaOsmond_000.pdf
 
 
Another source of nitrogen comes from sewage overflows.  Last year,
Durham had overflows of almost 700,000 gallons of raw sewage.   See the
report at http://www.durhamnc.gov/departments/wm/pdf/sewer_report_08.pdf
 
I know this is quite a bit of information to digest if you are not
familiar with water quality issues.  I think it is extremely important
to be as educated as possible (I'm still learning) in making mega
important decisions such as how to protect one of our MOST VITAL
resources..water.  We don't want to be in the same boat as Atlanta in
terms of not having enough water.  The drought should have taught us
that we need to be careful and thoughtful in making sure that we are
making sustainable decisions with our resources.  
 
I understand Durham wants to grow and expand its tax base.  This doesn't
change the fact that the soils are highly erosive and most of Durham is
in water supply watershed.  It is what it is.  There are also
consequences for not taking these factors into account..REALLY EXPENSIVE
ones. 
 
The Jordan Rules aren't crazy.  Like I said, Durham KNEW how important
it was to be very careful about development in its own watershed, which
is why Lake Michie and Little River are very well protected (as it
should be).  However, Durham didn't get water from Jordan Lake and so
the same protections didn't apply.  Ironically, Durham now gets up to 10
million gallons a day from Jordan (via Cary) and has applied for another
10 million gallons a day from Jordan.
 
I'm not against development.  I believe you should do it right the first
time, so we don't have to pay to clean it up later.  I also believe that
if you mess it up, then you should clean it up.  Someone pays sooner or
later.  There is no reason to change if there are no consequences.  
 
Sincerely,
Tina Motley-Pearson
 
  
 
-----Original Message-----
From: inc-list-bounces at rtpnet.org [mailto:inc-list-bounces at rtpnet.org]
On Behalf Of Westbrook, Vicki
Sent: Friday, January 30, 2009 5:46 PM
To: inc-list at rtpnet.org
Subject: [Durham INC] Jordan Lake Rules impact on City
 
Could you please post the following regarding the NC Bill to Disapprove
Jordan Nutrient Strategy Rules?
We would encourage Durham citizens to carefully investigate all impacts
on our community before taking a position on the Jordan Lake Nutrient
Management Rules.  We in City government take our roles as responsible
environmentalists quite seriously and there are other City and County
leaders (also environmentalists) who oppose portions of these Rules,
those portions that are viewed as unnecessary, unfair, and not based on
good science.  The "existing development" rule will lead to huge
stormwater rate increases of hundreds of dollars in Durham that will hit
average citizens very hard.  Durham's leaders have carefully evaluated
these Rules and are supporting some of the rules but rejecting others.
For example, restrictions on new development (the most expensive in the
state) are supported - but rules that could require citizens to fund
hundreds of millions of dollars of stormwater treatment devices for
existing, older development are being rejected. We also support moving
the implementation date for the rules that impact wastewater discharges
by two years so that adequate optimization and design work can be done;
with construction completed by the initially agreed upon date of 2016.
It is important to not have a knee-jerk reaction to these rules.  All of
us care about Durham and want to improve downtown and attract good
development without imposing extremely burdensome stormwater and
wastewater utility fees on our citizens.
Vicki Westbrook, Deputy Director
Administration & Operations
City of Durham, Dept. of Water Management
101 City Hall Plaza
Phone:  (919) 560-4381, x 266
FAX:     (919) 560-4479
 
There are a number of ways to save water, and they all start with you.
Water - Use it Wisely!
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