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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes - 20020829 APPROVED 11/6/2002 MINUTES ORANGE COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS WORK SESSION AUGUST 29, 2002 The Orange County Board of Commissioners met for a Work Session on Thursday, August 29, 2002 at 7:30p.m. at the Southern Human Services Center in Chapel Hill, North Carolina COUNTY COMMISSIONERS PRESENT: Commissioners Margaret W. Brown, Moses Carey, Jr., Alice B. Gordon and Stephen Halkiotis COUNTY COMMISSIONERS ABSENT: Barry Jacobs (arrived at 8:OOpm) COUNTY ATTORNEYS PRESENT: Geof Gledhill and Sean Borhanian COUNTY STAFF PRESENT: County Manager John M. Link, Jr., Assistant County Manager Rod Visser, Assistant County Manager Gwen Harvey and Clerk to the Board Donna S. Baker NOTE: ALL DOUMENTS REFERRED TO IN THESE MINUTES ARE IN THE PERMANENT AGENDA FILE IN THE CLERK'S OFFICE. ALL RECORDINGS OF THE MEETING WILL BE KEPT FOR FIVE (6) YEARS. OPENING COMMENTS: Vice Chair Halkiotis called the meeting to order saying that Chair Jacobs was unable to be here this evening (but he may be in later). He has a dying animal at home and is taking care of this. Commissioner Halkiotis then reviewed the documents that were in front of each County Commissioner. The yellow copy is a sample ballot for the non-partisan election. Commissioner Gordon pointed out that some of the races were in reverse alphabetical order. Commissioner Halkiotis said that the western part of the state had asked for a reverse order of names on the ballot. The pink handout is the Trees of Strength dedication plaque information for the September 11th ceremony. Commissioner Gordon suggested not using the plastic plaque for the ceremony but instead using that money ($54) toward the bronze plaque. Also, she asked that whatever is written on the plaque that this will come by the Commissioners first. The blue Sheet is the revised agenda, which adds two closed session items: "To consult with the County Attorney in order to preserve the attorney-client privilege between the County Attorney and the Board. N.C. Gen Stat. § 143- 318.11 (a) (3)"; and "To consider the qualifications, competence, performance, character, fitness, conditions of appointment, or conditions of initial employment of an individual public officer or employee or prospective public officer or employee," NCGS § 143-318.11 (a)(6). The purple hand-out is information that was faxed to Chair Jacobs from the Mayor of Chapel Hill in reference to some citizens requesting a third high school and to locate it in the southern part of Chapel Hill. Mayor Foy is suggesting that the Town Board, the school board, and the Board of County Commissioners get together to discuss this. 1. Orange County 26oth Anniversary Celebration Economic Development Director Dianne Reid showed the posters for the 250th celebration that will hang in the County buildings throughout the next year. She said that they will be having banners made for the 250th celebration and these will be hanging in Chapel Hill, Carrboro, and Hillsborough for the month of September. She reviewed the upcoming events to kick off Orange County's 250th celebration. On September 8, 2002 there will be a 3.5-mile hike, leaving from the Sheriffs Department at 12:30 p.m. (shuttle buses to Moorefields where the hike will begin) and they will hike back to Hillsborough, with interpretative guides along the way. There will also be an afternoon free-guided tour of downtown Hillsborough, which will begin at 2:00 p.m. and last until 3:30 p.m. At 4:00 p.m., on the portico of the Old Courthouse, Harry Watson, Director of UNC Center for the Study of the American South, will be speaking. On Monday, September 9, 2002 music will begin at 11 :40 a.m. at the Old Courthouse, and at 12:00 p.m. the church bells will ring. There will be a prayer by John Jeffries and then there will be various speakers. The Governor, Lieutenant Governor, Council of State, elected officials throughout the region, and the Board Chairs of the counties that used to be part of Orange County have all been invited. Also, the two nearest elementary schools have been invited, especially the 4th graders since they are studying North Carolina history. If it rains either day, the activities will continue. Dianne Reid gave the preliminary budget for the events. Commissioner Halkiotis read the budget to the members of the audience. Cash contributions of $11 ,000 have been raised for the events and in-kind contributions total $3,000. 2. Short and Long Term Water Supply Issues John Link introduced County Engineer Paul Thames. He also recognized the Mayor of Hillsborough Joe Phelps, Town Manager Eric Peterson, Health Director Rosie Summers, Executive Director of OWASA Ed Kerwin, Environmental Health Director Ron Holdway, Buddy Goforth from Orange- Alamance Water Systems, and others. County Engineer Paul Thames said that he would be talking about stage 6 Water Restrictions and about staff getting information out to the public about the water conservation. He said that as of last Friday, Lake Orange was below 9 feet below spilling. Nine feet four inches is what it takes to go into stage 6 water restrictions. Due to the rain over the weekend, Lake Orange fell only one inch over three days when normally it would have fallen three inches. As of today, Lake Orange was eight inches below spilling. He said that it is very unlikely that we would reach stage 6 restrictions before next week. As a staff, he said that they have been talking about how to educate citizens about water conservation before we get into a situation such as Moore County. There have been some wells that have dried up in the County and the Department of Environmental Health is tracking this. These are mostly old, hand dug, and marginal wells. The staff is proposing that we convert the County's old groundwater phone line into a drought related hotline for people to call in about well failure. Paul Thames said that the rain now could give people false hope, but the drought will continue and possibly get worse. The surface water problem could be resolved and the ground water problem could have a lag and get worse later. Chair Jacobs arrived at this time at 8:00 p.m. Paul Thames talked about stage 6 restrictions and said that the drought ordinance for stage 6 says that we begin water rationing. Since Hillsborough's reservoir has about 100 days of water left, it puts them in a much better situation. Orange-Alamance still relies on Lake Orange. Orange-Alamance has been able to arrange temporary purchases from Mebane and Graham. He said that no utility is ready to talk about water rationing; and if they cut a large percentage of the water out, their costs still remain the same. The other part is if a utility was to initiate a water-rationing program at an inconvenience to its customers, and they did not run out of water, then the public would backlash at the utility. He said that what the Town of Hillsborough has adopted for its stage 6 restrictions is about all you are going to see from anybody. None of the other surrounding cities in other counties have prohibited the outside use of water yet. He believes that Durham is in worse shape than Hillsborough or OWASA. John Link asked Paul Thames to speak to the items on pages 5 & 6. Paul Thames said that they had talked about having another press conference before they go into stage 6 because the press seems very interested in the water stages. He wants to publicize these water restrictions and conservation ideas through the website and through a press conference. He would also like to use the press conference to advertise the proposed hotline about water issues and to publicize the use of paper plates. They were also thinking about having a drive for bottled water and paper plates for people in financial hardship that may have water through a utility that is participating in rationing. John Link asked Paul Thames to expand on the recommendations that can be adopted by the County in their own facilities such as turning off water fountains and using water coolers and providing hand-sanitizing materials that do not require water. The Health Department requires the use of soap and water where food is handled. Lastly, Paul Thames said that they thought they may have more restricted regulations dealing with stage 6, but the only one that the Town of Hillsborough has adopted is for motels to ask customers to use the same sheets for more than one day. He said that they had proposed making single service plates required instead of recommended in restaurants but this would not be a large water savings. Commissioner Carey asked Paul Thames about the Government requiring motels to change linens everyday. He has seen other motels in other areas of the country that have signs that say that linens will not be changed unless requested. He asked if we could use this approach. Paul Thames said that they would look into it. Chair Jacobs asked if the Board wanted to hear from the water providers. Hillsborough Town Manager Eric Peterson said that he attended the Hillsborough Board of Commissioners' meeting last night and talked about what they discussed at the meeting. They are going to lower the tank levels on the water system just to decrease the pressure. The Town has 127 days of capacity left. They want to stay away from rationing. They have just ordered low flow showerheads and other items in order to educate people and give them away to Hillsborough Water customers. Commissioner Halkiotis asked the Board of County Commissioners to instruct the County Manager to implement the same type of program as Hillsborough in giving away the flow restrictors. He wants to get items to give away to the public to help them to conserve water. Paul Thames said that the flow restrictors have been required by plumbing code since 1994. Commissioner Brown asked about all the things that have been put in effect since the restrictions were put in and how much water it has actually saved. Eric Peterson talked about the decrease they had seen when they went through the different stages of water restrictions. He complimented the school system and said that when the schools opened, the water supply did not excessively decrease. Commissioner Halkiotis said that they have gone to paper plates in the school systems. They have severely restricted water usage in the schools. Commissioner Brown asked Eric Peterson how the water restrictions are going to affect Hillsborough's discussions in the future about growth. Eric Peterson said that they use stage 5 as a base level and then make projections from there. Chair Jacobs asked about the Town Board's discussions about the strategic growth plan and Eric Peterson said that they have been discussing this. Commissioner Carey asked about defining stage 7. Eric Peterson said that they are about a week from going in to stage 6. In stage 7, they may be more restrictive and go to water rationing. He said that Asheville did it several years ago. Administering rationing would take a lot of time. Commissioner Halkiotis mentioned an article in USA today where there was a picture of Lake Orange. He also said that when the City of Greensboro was down to a 90-day supply of water, they were trying to get contracts from Burlington and Haw River and trying to replenish their water. They were making plans for beginning an evacuation of nursing and rest homes and he asked when Orange County might want to start talking about this. John Link referred to the third bullet on page 6 and said that his staff is starting to get information about rest homes and family care homes that are on wells that are out in the County and to try and solicit water services for these people. The goal is to keep the people where they are and bring the water in if needed. He is pleased that his staff is doing this. Commissioner Halkiotis asked how much water is coming out of Lake Orange as of today and how much water is coming out of Hillsborough. Paul Thames said that about 600,000 gallons a day is being released to Orange-Alamance, 500,000 gallons a day is being released to Hillsborough, and 200,000 gallons a day is being released for Piedmont Minerals. He said that they are probably releasing about a million and a half gallons a day. Commissioner Halkiotis verified that when we go to stage 6 that the 200,000 for Piedmont Minerals goes away and the allocation to Orange- Alamance gets cut in half. Paul Thames said that with the County's releases, we are having tremendous in-stream losses. It may be altogether about 40%. Commissioner Brown expressed her congratulations to Eric Peterson for the Town of Hillsborough taking such drastic measures in water conservation. She said that all of the County Commissioners are on wells and the public is concerned. She is wondering about some water companies with the inability to supply water to their customers. Eric Peterson said that Hillsborough has not made any plans as far as well drilling. They would not rule that out, however. Commissioner Brown said that she hoped we would all work together about water issues and the possibility of drilling wells. Chair Jacobs talked about having a follow-up to the water summit and having the towns do it and talk about groundwater. He said that everyone has a different set of stages from each other about water restrictions. He asked what would happen if Durham gets to 30 days and asks OWASA for water. We all need to be on the same page. Commissioner Brown asked about helping people with water and talked about year round water conservation. Paul Thames said that Central Purchasing uses water from the roof to flush the toilets. He said that OWASA has been investigating wastewater reuse. Commissioner Gordon spoke about groundwater and how we could advise people. She said that it is difficult to know what your situation is until you are about ready to run out of water. She wondered if there was anything more that we could do in terms of educating the public. Chair Barry Jacobs suggested finishing with Orange-Alamance and OWASA first. Brady Goforth from Orange-Alamance Water Systems said that they have adopted conservation measures similar to Hillsborough and have reached an agreement to purchase water from Graham and are looking for other sources. Chair Jacobs asked how the purchase of water would affect the rates. Mr. Goforth said that this may affect prices but has not yet. They may have to increase rates and they are looking at a lot of avenues for future water sources. They have been more aggressive lately in looking for sources of water. They are looking to the west. They have hired an engineer firm to look for sources. Commissioner Carey asked if Orange-Alamance was still purchasing water from Durham through Hillsborough and Mr. Goforth said no because it is too expensive. Their main sources have been Mebane and now Graham. Commissioner Carey asked if they had seen similar reductions in use of water on their system with water restrictions and Mr. Goforth said yes. However, some people do not understand all of the stages. Commissioner Halkiotis mentioned an article from Newsweek about water in Texas and said that someone is starting to tap on the major aquifers in North Texas to deliver water to Dallas. People are really concerned about this. He pointed out that North Carolina's water table is dropping eight to ten feet per year in the eastern part of the state. Paul Thames said that the groundwater system in the eastern part of the state is on a mandatory capacity use. Commissioner Halkiotis said that he also read that the underground saltwater is shifting inland and replacing the fresh water in the aquifers. Chair Jacobs mentioned that the salt water has infiltrated to within a mile of the intake of the fresh water at Myrtle Beach. Commissioner Halkiotis said the battle in Texas with water would take place here too. Commissioner Brown asked Brady Goforth about the sustainability philosophy of the utility and if this model could offer a new perspective on how to maintain the utility. Brady Goforth said that their original idea was that they were a rural water provider, but with growth they have had to be stretched. But on a positive note, there is an industry nearby that has 400 employees. He knows that if Mebane and Graham have water, they are not going to let 400 jobs go away and they are going to continue to provide water to Orange-Alamance. They are still looking at other sources for water. Commissioner Brown said that the Economic Development Director has a lot of models for sustainability that might be helpful in directing a new way of thinking about it. Chair Jacobs said that the Board of County Commissioners would be glad to sit down again and discuss the water issue with Hillsborough, Orange- Alamance, and Mebane. He asked Brady Goforth about the low flow system and Mr. Goforth said that they do not have a program like the Town of Hillsborough. Chair Jacobs said that maybe the County staff could help Orange- Alamance's customers. Commissioner Brown asked if Orange-Alamance had a moratorium on tap-ons on the water system and Brady Goforth said yes. Commissioner Gordon asked Brady Goforth about looking for other sources and said that it sounds like that unless other sources are found, no one else will be allowed to tap in unless water can be bought from the west. Mr. Goforth said that his system uses a little over a million gallons a day when they are not conserving. The typical withdrawal from the Eno is 600,000-700,000, but the State will only allow them 370,000 gallons a day. Their wells allow them 300,000 gallons a day. Mebane sells them 300,000 gallons a day if needed. If they are willing to grow, they will need to have a long-term contract with someone for water. They would rather not drill more wells. Commissioner Gordon asked if Orange-Alamance was not in the business, who would supply the water. Brady Goforth said that Mebane or Graham might take over the system. It would mean a much higher rate for the customers. Ed Kerwin, Executive Director of OWASA spoke next. He said that since they came before the Board on August 20th, the remainder of that week they saw demand in their service area increase quite substantially. Last Friday, their stage 2 water restrictions took effect, which reduced irrigation to one day per week. Since then, they have seen a decline in use. They have only seen 1/3 of an inch of rain in Cane Creek during the last five days. They have actually seen University Lake creep up a few inches, but Cane Creek is currently close to 17 feet down. They may be only days away from stage 3. They estimate that they have 108 days of supply remaining. Stage 3 would stop all outdoor irrigation and they may have to write new stages. Their board may have a special meeting next week to discuss emergency measures. Chair Jacobs talked about Lowes having so many plants and how to accommodate businesses that depend on water for their livelihood. Ed Kerwin said that there would be no outside uses of water if they go into stage 3 except fire suppression. There are no exceptions to this. Chair Jacobs made reference to an article and said that people were hesitating to do what was necessary because of the adverse consequences to some businesses. Ed Kerwin said that they were aware of this and they have formed an ad hoc meeting to discuss this issue on September 5th. He said that unless there is a significant rainfall or a dramatic reduction in demand within the OWASA system, they are likely a stage away from dropping all outdoor use of water. Commissioner Gordon asked about taking water from inside to water plants outside and if this would be allowed and Ed Kerwin said no. Commissioner Halkiotis asked about the University's use of water and how much the demand has gone up with them back in session. Ed Kerwin said that he would have a better answer in a couple of weeks because of the meter readings. Historically, they do not see much of a change because irrigation outdoors is decreasing when the students come back. Commissioner Brown asked who the biggest water users are. Ed Kerwin said that residential users were the biggest and then the University and then commercial. Commissioner Brown asked about helping businesses that use water and if a business like Lowes could use roof water. Ed Kerwin said yes. He said that the benefit is that there is a lot to be learned from this drought in water conservation. Commissioner Brown said that there are a lot of solutions, but she worries that if the drought ends next year that we are going to forget about the conservation. Commissioner Gordon asked about reusing water. She asked if there was some reason for not using gray water (reclaimed water). Ed Kerwin responded to her question by saying that there is a risk of contamination involved in using reclaimed water. He referred to the Health Department for specifics on this. Commissioner Gordon asked if people were willing to pay 25% more for water to feel less pain, what would OWASA do with the extra 25%. Ed Kerwin said that it would be used to develop additional sources of water supply. He does not know where they would go to get this. Commissioner Gordon said that OWASA owns that site on Jordan Lake. John Link asked Ed Kerwin about drawing water out of the quarry and Ed Kerwin said that they have intentionally not pumped University Lake and have been pumping their quarry supply gradually into it. Otherwise, University Lake would have been dry by now. Chair Jacobs asked that the people representing the water utilities stay for a few minutes to talk about the next item. Commissioner Gordon asked Environmental Health Director Ron Holdway about water conservation measures. Ron Holdway said that he has concerns that there is a dry zone in the ground that is moving down. If the rain does not catch up and wet this area again, over time a lot of wells will go dry. Commissioner Gordon asked about how it works with the level of the water table and the replenishment and lag time. Ron Holdway said that he has no way to predict how quickly replenishment will come. He said that the wells that are 30-40 feet would be dry shortly if they are not already. Commissioner Gordon asked about having someone to look at wells to see where the water table is. Ron Holdway said that to fully evaluate a well, you have to pump it and this is not advised. Commissioner Gordon asked about surface providers and what the County is doing for people whose wells may run dry. She said that people would obviously need help. Ron Holdway said that they have looked at consolidated education for all residents in the County and not just specific water users. There is no centralized water utility for well water users, so by default, the County has to lead the campaign. Commissioner Gordon asked that the Department of Environmental Health have a contingency plan in place. Ron Holdway said that they are looking at that and there may be a delay effect on well users. Chair Jacobs said that the Board should give the Manager direction. He suggested that we do an analysis of all the fixtures in our County buildings and replace them with water conserving devices. He said that Person County is charging half price on drilling new wells because of the drought. He is thinking that some of the shallower wells may be owned by people of modest means. He would like to ask staff to talk about setting up a loan fund for these people. Commissioner Gordon said that we should direct the Manager to work with Environmental Health and the Board of Health to come up with some kind of plan for when people run out of water. Even longer term, she would like to see us build on the groundwater studies from USGS to see if we can get a handle on where we stand. John Link said that his staff would develop a plan for people with wells that go dry or that may be in an economically challenged position. He is assuming that it would be an income-based approach. He said that it would be similar to how we approached recovery with Hurricane Fran. 3. Update on the Status of the Comprehensive Plan Land Use Committee Planning Director Craig Benedict made this presentation. He showed some maps of the watersheds. He said that one of the largest constraints to growth is soil and water resources. There have been three meetings of the CPLUC so far. The committee came up with a list of 16 different growth constraints and have combined them into some growth scenarios. At the next CPLUC meeting they will be talking about three different models of growth. There has been good attendance at the meetings. The intent is to throw out as many ideas as possible for managing growth in the future. They would like to have an all-inclusive list to bring back to the Board of County Commissioners in about a month and a half. Craig Benedict said that he wants to make sure that in the new plan, that they are not increasing lot sizes and creating a new sprawl pattern. If lot size is increased, then there should be more open space instead of more disturbed area. The problem now is with groundwater and surface water because new development is causing more disturbed and impervious area and is making water run off at a faster rate and not allowing it to get back into our reservoirs. Craig Benedict said that he thinks that the CPLUC meetings have been productive. Chair Jacobs asked John Link if the Board could have a work session to deal just with the CPLUC. John Link said that one is not planned in the work sessions coming up. Commissioner Brown would like to see us move ahead this year on the new plan. John Link asked about the follow up with the groundwater studies and re- visiting those to see what those findings were. He is concerned as a person on a well. He said that as Craig Benedict looks at all of this information — the issue of groundwater, sustainability, what growth can occur, he thinks that we should look at this from a neighbor perspective. We need to know the facts and we need to be sure that the facts are known by everyone in the community. It is a neighbor- to-neighbor issue as well. Commissioner Gordon said that one of the USGS studies had to do with recharge area. Commissioner Brown asked if John Link wanted the Board to come up with information about developing a committee that would work on extrapolating some of the information from the USGS study. Craig Benedict said that the Planning Board has put forth some people that want to address these groundwater issues. John Link volunteered to work on this committee. Commissioner Gordon asked who would do this committee. There will need to be other staff resources. Craig Benedict said that they do have the staff to work on this committee. Charles Daniels, who put the study together, might be able to serve on the committee. Commissioner Gordon would also like to serve on this committee. Chair Jacobs asked if we could use this to segue into the Planning Board's issue of growth controls. 4. Report of Growth Controls in Large Residential Projects Craig Benedict said that based on a resolution that the County Commissioners put forward in late June, it told the County Manager, County Attorney, Planning Director, and Planning Board to come up with some ideas on what growth controls are out there and the mechanisms. There are a few different methods to address the issues of large projects in rural areas and if a moratorium is needed while we are still working on important things such as the Schools Adequate Public Facilities Ordinance and the Comprehensive Plan. He distributed a handout of Growth Control Recommendations, which is incorporated by reference. Commissioner Gordon said that she did not feel good and asked about not going over this document tonight. John Link said this would be an interim step that would allow us to have some control over what can be approved without a moratorium. He asked the County Commissioners to take the document home and think about it. County Attorney Geoffrey Gledhill said that he could go over the outline at the next regular meeting. The decision about whether to have a moratorium or not could be put off with this plan. Chair Jacobs said that it could be inserted as item 9-b2 on September 3ra Commissioner Gordon left the meeting at 10:00 p.m. (was not feeling well) 5. Orange County/Durham 1-85/US 70 Economic Development District Area Not covered 6. Closed Session A motion was made by Commissioner Halkiotis, seconded by Commissioner Brown to go into closed session: a. "To consult with the County Attorney in order to preserve the attorney-client privilege between the County Attorney and the Board." N.C. Gen. Stat. § 143-318.11(a) (3) b. "To consider the qualifications, competence, performance, character, fitness, conditions of appointment, or conditions of initial employment of an individual public officer or employee or prospective public officer or employee." N.C. Gen Stat. § 143-318.11 (a) (6) VOTE: UNANIMOUS A motion was made by Commissioner Halkiotis, seconded by Commissioner Brown to reconvene into regular session. VOTE: UNANIMOUS ADJOURNMENT A motion was made by Commissioner Halkiotis, seconded by Commissioner Brown to adjourn the meeting at 10:30 p.m. VOTE: UNANIMOUS The next Board of County Commissioners meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, September 3, 2002 at the Southern Human Services Center in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Barry Jacobs, Chair Donna S. Baker Clerk to the Board