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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes 10-14-2014 Late APPROVED 11/18/2014 MINUTES ORANGE COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS Work Session October 14, 2014 7:00 p.m. The Orange County Board of Commissioners met for a work session on Tuesday, October 14, 2014 at 7:00 p.m. at the Whitted Building in Hillsborough, N.C. COUNTY COMMISSIONERS PRESENT: Chair Jacobs and Commissioners Mark Dorosin, Alice M. Gordon, Earl McKee, Bernadette Pelissier, Renee Price Penny Rich COUNTY COMMISSIONERS ABSENT: COUNTY ATTORNEYS PRESENT: John Roberts COUNTY STAFF PRESENT: County Manager Bonnie Hammersley, Assistant County Manager Clarence Grier, Cheryl Young and Clerk to the Board Donna Baker (All other staff members will be identified appropriately below) Chair Jacobs called the meeting to order at 7:08 p.m. 1. RENA and Cedar Grove Community Centers Update Jeff Thompson introduced Grace Wallace. He walked through descriptions of a series of photos of the Rogers Road Eubanks Neighborhood Association (RENA) Center and reviewed the following points from the PowerPoint slides: RENA Community Center • Final Paint, Carpentry Trim, Kitchen Installation remaining • Final Inspections Currently Underway • Occupancy Permit expected in October, 2014 • Staff working with RENA leadership on move-in topics • Ribbon Cutting ceremony scheduled for November 15, 2014 Commissioner Rich asked if there is a landscaping plan in place. Jeff Thompson answered yes. Jeff Thompson presented the following highlights regarding the Cedar Grove Community Center: Update on the Cedar Grove Community Center • Construction Documents ("CDs") 90% complete • 60% CD set stakeholder and regulatory review • Scheduled December bid advertisement • Scheduled BOCC bid award: January 2015 • Estimated construction completion: Fall 2015 • Highlights • Facility programming planning underway • PFAP storage • Park & Ride planning Jeff Thompson showed some site photos and said the major site plan difference is that the parking is being flushed out on the south side, including a truck dock to feed the storage for PFAP. He said there is a potential bus shelter being studied in the front and back on the north side. Jeff Thompson reviewed the floor plan and he noted that the blue area is the community center; and the PFAP and county storage are shown on the wings. Commissioner Gordon asked how the circulation would work for public transit. Jeff Thompson said the two specified locations meet the geometry for the bus assets. He said the southern lot is tight, and the topography is challenging. He said it is much easier to circulate on the other side. Commissioner Gordon asked if people would be able to leave their cars. Jeff Thompson said there is parking in the back, and other parking sites are still being considered. Commissioner McKee noted that the Little Free Library is located in the upper right hand corner of the bus shelter potential location. Chair Jacobs asked if any of this information is posted at the site so that the Community can be informed. Jeff Thompson said this has not been posted, although it has been distributed to the resident advisory group and the stakeholder group. He said it could be posted. 2. Upper Neuse River Basin Association Update Dave Stancil said this is the 3rd year in a row that staff has had a "water night' to catch up on water issues that affect Orange County. Tom Davis said approximately half of Orange County is located in the Falls Lake watershed, and Falls Lake is rated as impaired by the state division of water resources. He referred to a slide showing that the upper end of the lake is more impaired than the lower end of the lake. He said the Falls Lake Rules were enacted in 2011 to address this impairment. He said Stage II of the rules require unprecedented reductions in nutrient runoff. Tom Davis reviewed key portions of the following information from the abstract: The Falls Lake Nutrient Management Strategy (Falls Lake Rules) require local governments, the North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT), the agricultural community, and other regulated parties located in the Falls Lake watershed (Attachment A) to reduce nitrogen and phosphorus nutrient loading to the lake by 40% and 77%, respectively, by 2036. Regulated parties anticipate significant financial and technical difficulties with meeting the mandated nutrient reduction targets. The fiscal note prepared by the State at the time the Falls Lake Rules were developed estimated the cost of compliance with the rules to be at least $1.5 billion. Many affected parties believe the phosphorus reduction goal of 77% is not attainable at any cost. As a result of the challenges with meeting the goals of the Falls Lake Rules, the Upper Neuse River Basin Association (UNRBA), of which Orange County is a member, is working to revise Stage II of the Falls Lake Rules. The activities of the UNRBA are guided by the Consensus Principles, which were adopted by nearly all of the jurisdictions in the Falls Lake watershed, including the Orange County Board of Commissioners on March 16, 2010 (Attachment B). The Consensus Principles emphasize the protection of Falls Lake as a water supply for the City of Raleigh, while also stating the need for re-examination of Stage II of the Falls Lake Rules. Consensus Principles Consensus Principle #9 includes the following with regard to the development of the Falls Lake Rules: "...relied on a limited database which will be substantially enhanced by a more rigorous program of sampling, monitoring and analysis." Furthermore: "The EMC [Environmental Management Commission] should therefore begin a re-examination of its nutrient management strategy for Falls Lake by January 1, 2018. The re-examination should consider, among other things, (i) the physical, chemical, and biological conditions of the Lake with a focus on nutrient loading impacts and the potential for achieving the Stage 1 goal by 2021 as well as the feasibility of both achieving the Stage 2 reduction goals and meeting the water quality standard for chlorophyll-a in the Upper Lake, (ii) the cost of achieving, or attempting to achieve, the Stage 2 reduction goals and meeting the water quality standard for chlorophyll-a in the Upper Lake, (iii) the existing uses in the Upper Lake and whether alternative water quality standards would be sufficient to protect those existing uses...". Consensus Principle #10 states: "The limited resources available to DWQ [Division of Water Quality, now Division of Water Resources - DWR] and DENR [Department of Environment and Natural Resources] for the implementation of the nutrient management strategy and the need for a robust and active sampling and monitoring program, as well as additional modeling, make it desirable for the affected local governments to share resources and undertake these important activities, and other activities associated with the re-examination of the Nutrient Management Strategy, collectively. The affected local governments should share resources and assist with funding for the examination of the Nutrient Management Strategy." UNRBA Projects Given the challenges with meeting Stage II of the Falls Lake Rules, as well as the guidelines outlined in the Consensus Principles document, the UNRBA is already either working on, or is planning to begin, the following projects: • Estimation of nutrient sources and jurisdictional loading of nutrients to Falls Lake • Modeling the response of Falls Lake to nutrient input and internal lake processes • Monitoring of changes in the lake as a result of compliance activities in the watershed • The linkage of water quality conditions to the designated uses of Falls Lake • Estimation of BMP credits for measures without DWR-established credits • Support of various options under the existing regulatory framework in North Carolina The UNRBA has retained a consultant to help examine options for meeting the requirements of Stage II the Falls Lake Rules while incorporating the goals of the Consensus Principles. According to the Framework for a Re-examination of Stage II of the Falls Nutrient Strategy prepared by the consultant, CardnoEntrix: "The re-examination should consider existing data, models, nutrient management strategies, the Consensus Principles, water quality standards (including designated uses and water quality criteria), implementation costs, and regulatory flexibility." Reports To date, CardnoEntrix has completed the following reports as part of the re-examination process: • Task 1: Framework for a Re-examination of Stage II of the Falls Nutrient Strategy • Task 2: Review Existing Data and Reports for Falls Lake and the Watershed • Task 3: Estimation of Nutrient Loading to Falls Lake • Task 4: Review of Existing Models and Recommendations for Future Studies In addition, CardnoEntrix has also completed two technical memoranda: • TM1: Comparison of Flow Estimation Methods • TM2: Evaluation of the Sensitivity of the Falls Lake Nutrient Response Model Water Quality Sampling During July 2014, CardnoEntrix received approval from DWR for three required technical memoranda that had been prepared and submitted for DWR review that describe in detail the watershed sampling project that will form the foundation of the re-examination process: • Quality Assurance Project Plan (QAPP) • Falls Lake Watershed Monitoring Plan • Modeling Framework The QAPP and the Monitoring Plan describe the three-to five-year watershed sampling effort that was initiated in August 2014. The water quality sampling program will provide information for the following purposes: • Determination of nutrient source allocation and jurisdictional nutrient loading to Falls Lake; • Falls Lake response modeling; • Development of data for consideration of additional regulatory options; and • Linkage of water quality conditions in Falls Lake to the designated Attachment C illustrates the locations that will be sampled in the Falls Lake watershed for the determination of jurisdictional loading, as well as the stations that are designed to provide information about nutrient loading to the lake. Attachment D illustrates additional water quality sampling locations that other organizations are monitoring within Falls Lake. Modeling Data Gaps UNRBA re-modeling of Falls Lake is expected to start in approximately two years, and is intended to update the lake response model that DWQ utilized in the development of the Falls Lake Rules. The UNRBA contractor identified several gaps in the data used by DWQ in the modeling completed during the development of the Falls Lake Rules, including: • DWQ held constant the total organic carbon and chlorophyll-a input values assumed for the tributaries feeding into Falls Lake. These concentrations were based on levels measured within the lake, not in the tributaries. It is probable that these concentrations were artificially high to begin with and were unable to decrease at all over the course of the modeling study. • There are no stream gages on any of the streams that flow into Falls Lake east of I-85, thus no flow information was incorporated for any of these 12 streams. • Atmospheric deposition of nitrogen in the lake or watershed was not accounted for by DWQ. • Streambank erosion, possibly a significant source of phosphorus in the watershed, was not considered as a possible source by DWQ. • Internal lake processes, such as sediment re-suspension, were also not accounted for by DWQ. BMP Credit Review and Nutrient Trappinq Analysis CardnoEntrix is also currently working on a nutrient reduction BMP credit literature review and the analysis of nutrient trapping that occurs within the larger impoundments in the watershed. While the nutrient trapping analysis will be important for the remodeling of the watershed, the BMP credit determination project will be beneficial to entities, including UNRBA member governments, which must use BMPs to meet required nutrient reduction goals. DWR approval of additional BMP credits is expected to take nearly a year per each additional BMP as a result of the stringent credit determination process currently proposed by DWR. With several measures in need of credit determination, the process of developing a thorough BMP "tool kit" for regulated entities to employ may take a decade or more. Schedule A tentative schedule for upcoming UNRBA projects is included as Attachment E. As can be seen from this schedule, the UNRBA anticipates conducting the studies discussed earlier in this document through 2020. Stage II of the Falls Rules is defined as the period extending from 2021 to 2036, with the overall goal of ineeting nutrient related water quality standards throughout Falls Lake by 2041. Upcominq Opportunity for Comments about the Rules The Regulatory Reform Act of 2013 (HB74) mandated that all rules expire within ten years of their effective dates, unless readopted. This rulemaking process allows for comments and revisions on the full range of regulated activities, including the Falls Lake Rules (15A NCAC 02B.0275 through .0282 and amended .0235 and .0315). The Rules Review Commission (RRC) is scheduled to begin the review of subchapter 2B rules in October 2014. The review process for all rules must be finished by June 2019. There is a three-step review process (Attachment F). The initial step is the agency's determination report and public comment period. In the determination the agency identifies each rule as "unnecessary and no public comment", "necessary and with substantive public interest", or "necessary and without substantive public comment". DWR has identified the Falls Lake Rules as "necessary and with substantive public interest". The second step in the review process is for the RRC to review the agency reports and the final step is the issuance of the RRC's final determination report. DWR anticipates re- adoption of all rules under review to begin in 2015. There is no financial impact to the County at this time. Given the numerous studies planned for the re-examination of Stage II and the timeframe established by the Falls Lake Rules, it is expected that UNRBA dues will remain elevated for several years. Tom Davis reviewed the following PowerPoint slides: UNRBA Update — The Path Forward Process "The Path Forward" process will re-examine the Stage II nutrient reduction requirements of the Falls Lake Rules while preserving use of Falls Lake as a water supply. Reports finished to date: • TM1:Framework for a Reexamination of Stage II of the Falls Nutrient Strategy • TM2: Review Existing Data and Reports for Falls Lake and the Watershed • TM3: Estimation of Nutrient Loading to Falls Lake • TM4: Review of Existing Models and Recommendations for Future Studies and • Comparison of Flow Estimation Methods • Evaluation of the Sensitivity of the Falls Lake Nutrient Response Model Ongoing Path Forward Projects: • Water Quality Monitoring in Falls Lake Watershed - Started in August 2014, emphasizing: ■ Jurisdictional Loading ■ Nutrient Loading to Falls Lake • BMP Credit Development Process o Add to list of BMPs that have been assigned nutrient reduction credits by DWR o UNRBA working with Falls Lake WOC concerning BMPs • Watershed Impoundment Nutrient Trapping Analysis Pam Hemminger said this discussion is very technical in nature. She said this is still being graded as a group project, so that is why all of this centers on the information in the lake. She said the jurisdictional loading was for staff benefit, and to help with modeling. She said work is being done with the state agencies, which are all on board with the monitoring project. She said the funding has been cut back so much that the state is only monitoring quarterly. She said there is no way to reach the proposed reductions, and staff believes the calculations were incorrect to begin with. Pam Hemminger said the state agencies will only look at a group report, and this is why it is important to work with the watershed group. She said there is still one spot open on the Upper Neuse River Basin Association (UNRBA) board, and it would be good to have a third name from this jurisdiction. She said there are representatives from the agricultural board, the Environmental Protection Agency, and other state agencies, so there are conversations happening. Chair Jacobs asked if the positions filled by other entities are filled with staff or with elected officials and public representatives. Pam said this varies, and most have at least one elected official, though there is a lot of staff presence. Chair Jacobs said a few years ago the County sent a letter objecting to the way the standards were formulated because of the way the County already protects watersheds, and because of the impact on agricultural practices. He asked how this has been incorporated in the group's formulations. Pam said the Department of Water Resources did not accept any protective measures that Counties had already put into place. She said this puts Orange County at a disadvantage due to the large amount of forested land in the basin, which makes it hard to reduce nutrient loading. She said the other problem with the formula is that there were flaws on the calculations. She said she and Tom Davis have fought for jurisdictional measuring, but it is hard to break out from the Hillsborough jurisdiction. She said as a group they need to know where the nutrients are coming from. Commissioner Price asked about the rationale for the noted jurisdictional sample locations marked with white x's. Tom Davis said the x's are at the jurisdictional boundaries of the creeks and streams in the County. Dave Stancil said this is because of the mandate to calculate each jurisdictional loading rate. Commissioner Rich asked about the future ramifications of Orange County not meeting the nitrogen and phosphorous load. She asked about the financial responsibilities of Orange County as it relates to the dues. Pam Hemminger said the dues are to pay for the nutrient tool box of credits that the consultants were hired to develop. She said the benefit is that these will be established for the County. She said the largest part of the dues is the monitoring, which is a cost of several million dollars over four or five years. She said this is calculated by a very strategic formula that takes into account the land mass size and the population. Pam Hemminger said monitoring is very expensive, and the County would pay a lot more than the current charge to do its own monitoring. She said the County will be charged no matter what if this group project fails. She said the hope is that the project does not fail, and that there will be reduced numbers from the new modeling that the County might actually be able to meet. She said everyone is learning from each other through this process. She said the dues were bumped up, but this year was less because it was a partial year. She said the dues will be higher next year. Commissioner Pelissier asked if monitoring done by other organizations is recognized by the state. Tom Davis said the results of monitoring done by other organizations will be included in the modeling that is being done. Pam Hemminger said both of these will be taken into the monitoring project, and the data will be recorded as group data from the sites. Commissioner McKee said he realizes this is a drinking water source that needs to be clean. He asked if he is correct that the best management practices that were put into place in the 70's, 80's and 90's will not count. Pam Hemminger said anything done before 2006 does not count. She said there will be some credit for a few things that have been done, but there are only 5 or 6 things on the list right now for credits. Tom Davis said the other consideration is that the best management practices have lowered the base line loading for the lake. Pam Hemminger said it is frustrating because Orange County went out of their way to put best practices in place. She said most of the land in the watershed in Orange County is forested land, and staff is hopeful that the re-modeling will help them significantly. Commissioner McKee said over the past 40 years the agricultural community has put in thousands of miles of fill borders, waterways, and sediment control structures that should count for something. He said the farmers want to keep the nutrients on their land. Commissioner McKee asked if the first water quality test on these sites is considered a base line. Tom Davis said no. He said many of these locations will be sampled every month to get results during different stages of stream flow, and this will be input into a model. Pam Hemminger said this data will be compared against the 2006 numbers to possibly come back with more reachable numbers. Commissioner McKee said this means 2006 is the baseline. Tom Davis said this is correct, and the best practices previously put in place will lower that baseline. Commissioner McKee said his other concern is that the financial impact of this will not only affect the County; but it will also flow back to farmers and homeowners in the form of additional rules and monitoring. Commissioner Gordon expressed her appreciation for the work that has been done. She asked if there has been any thought about the quality of what is being produced in these areas. She said forested land should be lowest in putting out nutrients. She questioned whether the County would fare better if this was measured on some absolute amount of nutrients coming out. Pam Hemminger said that is one of the reasons that the state decided to do this as a group project. She said every jurisdiction wants to know if they have a problem that needs to be fixed. She is hopeful that Orange County will find out that it is doing pretty well, but the problem is that the lake is still dirty. She said maybe the Lake was just never intended to be a water drinking source at the upper end. She said the lake is clean and drinkable at the lower end where Raleigh pulls the water out. She said most of the land in Orange County is forested, but there are also failing septic systems along the routes and some agriculture. She said everything will be measured by what is in the lake, but the state has agreed to look at the data from the jurisdictions. Chair Jacobs asked if there are discussions about giving local governments more authority to intervene. He asked if there has been discussion about recommendations to change how jurisdictions do business and development in watershed areas. Pam Hemminger said new development rules have been dealt with in phase one. She said existing development issues will be handled in phase two. She hopes the jurisdictions will come out of this with a toolbox of things that can be done. Chair Jacobs asked if there has been any discussion about storm water credits or pollution credits. Pam Hemminger said this is on the table as part of the nutrient credit program. She said the level of the credits would have to be approved by multiple entities. Chair Jacobs asked what happens to monitoring at the end of the 4 or 5 year period. Pam Hemminger said the Division of Water Resources (DWR) thought 4-5 years would be sufficient for monitoring, and they are aware of how expensive the monitoring is. She said she does not know what will happen in the future, and it will depend on the answers that are given by the current monitoring. Commissioner McKee referred to Pam Hemminger's earlier comment about the design of the lake being the reason for the issues in the upper end. He said his property contains two ponds, and one stays clear all of the time; but the second shallower pond is almost never clear due to algae blooms. Commissioner Price asked about the differentiation between farm and residential runoff. Pam Hemminger said the information from the monitoring will show where problems exist, and then the department will work out strategies depending on the lay of the land and what is out there. She said best management practices will have to be put in place. She noted that there are new development rules, and several areas are being moved off of septic systems, which will build up credits. Pam Hemminger said there are only two small natural lakes in the state of North Carolina and all of the others are man-made. She said these are not made deep enough, and this is a problem all over the state. 3. Oranqe Well Net Update Tom Davis reviewed the following background information and PowerPoint slides: The Department of Environment, Agriculture, Parks and Recreation's (DEAPR) groundwater observation well network, Orange Well Net (OWN) uses a combination of bedrock and regolith wells spread across the main types of bedrock geology present in Orange County. Regolith wells, which measure groundwater levels in the unconsolidated material present above bedrock in the subsurface, monitor natural stresses on the quantity of groundwater available in storage which are caused by variations in climatic conditions. Bedrock wells monitor changes in groundwater levels in the bedrock across the County. WELL NET PowerPoint • Orange Well Net Update • Orange County • Department of Environment, Agriculture, • Parks and Recreation • Orange Well Net Goals A. Primary Goal: • Monitor natural stresses on the quantity of groundwater available in storage caused by variations in climatic conditions. • Network should mainly utilize climatic effects (regolith) observation wells to monitor groundwater storage. B. Secondary Goal: • Monitor variations in groundwater levels across the nine main bedrock lithologies. • Terrane effect (bedrock) observation wells should be completed in each of the nine main bedrock lithologies. Latest Activities ■ Added bedrock wells: ■ Former 911 Center ■ Duke Forest 4D ■ Installed wells at: ■ Northeast District Park Site ■ Blackwood Farm ■ Working on agreement with TLC for use of additional bedrock well. DWR Web Site ➢ All data is available on NCDENR Division of Water Resources web site: http://www.ncwater.orq/Data and Modelinq/Ground Water Databases/leveltable.php? tl =1&net=oranqe&inactive= ➢ Bedrock Well Data Example ➢ Statistics Example What's Next? ➢ Continue to collect data and update web site. ➢ Consider installing automated rain gage(s) to collect precipitation data. ➢ Replace transducers as needed. Tom Davis said groundwater level data is collected every hour from each of the 11 wells. He said he periodically downloads this data and makes it available to the public on the DWR website. He reviewed a graph showing groundwater levels from 2010 to 2014. Chair Jacobs asked what this shows. Tom Davis said 2010 and 2011 were wetter years, but there is no way to know whether this is the norm or the drier years are the norm. He said this will be determined with more data over time. He reviewed the groundwater level graphs showing the re-charge months of winter and early spring and the lower level months of summer. He noted that the 2014 lines of the graph were higher than the mean. He said the groundwater level is the same term as the groundwater table. Commissioner Gordon asked what this data means in absolute terms of adequate quantity. Tom Davis said this cannot be looked at in absolute terms, only relative to previous levels. Commissioner Gordon said she is trying to figure out the big picture and what this information means as a practical matter. Dave Stancil said part of the big picture is that more time is needed to do a full analysis. He said a system has been set up and in 5 or 10 years there will be a lot more analysis to draw from. Commissioner Gordon referred to page 3 of the report, and asked for clarification about the casing depth numbers. Commissioner McKee said the top of the casing is above sea level. Commissioner Gordon asked about the two state groundwater wells and whether this data is used. Tom Davis said that data is not being used. Chair Jacobs said one of the reasons this started in the first place was because of an incident where residents on Arthur Minnis Road reported adverse impact to their wells as a result of the development of a new subdivision. He hopes this data is being provided to the planning department. He said one of the goals of the Commissioners was to use this data to respond to citizen's concerns, and that is why he supported doing these measures, not to gather abstract data. Commissioner Rich said it would have been nice to have had the history of this to put the discussion into context. Chair Jacobs noted that this is also an initiative of the Commission for the Environment. Commissioner Gordon shared some background history, and suggested an executive summary be provided. Commissioner McKee asked if any of these wells are close to commercial wells. Tom Davis said no. Commissioner McKee said unless you site a monitoring well near a commercial well, you will not get the information you want. He said these other wells do not accommodate the draw of a commercial well, which answers the questions about the impact of drilling a well for a subdivision. He asked if there are any commercial wells around. Chair Jacobs said Orange Alamance has a commercial well. Commissioner McKee said a monitoring well needs to be sited in this location, and data can then be gathered to determine what the commercial well is doing to the water table in that area. Dave Stancil said this might be an option. He said this is a long topic, and what people want to know is how new wells affect the water on their own lot. He said the nature of the underlying geology makes this very tricky, and it will take more years of data to really get answers. Commissioner McKee agreed that more years of data are needed, but he thinks a monitoring well should be drilled next to a commercial well to look at the trend for that groundwater level. Dave Stancil said he will look at whether there is an opportunity to do this. Chair Jacobs said Orange Alamance drilled these wells fairly recently and there was concern over what this would do to area water levels. Craig Benedict said Orange Alamance water systems chose not to use these wells as prime wells but to buy water from the Mebane/Graham system. He said this subject has been around since the 1990's. He said the underlying geography makes it very hard to predict the impact from one lot to the next, but he goal is to see if there are trends over the long term as it relates to the lowering of the ground water. Commissioner McKee said his request is moot if these commercial wells are not being regularly used. He asked if there are any operating commercial wells in Orange County. Craig Benedict said there are two categories of commercial well. He said one of these includes a subdivision with a centralized well. He said it may be possible to take a look at these to do monitoring well in an adjacent private well. Commissioner Price said she recalls the planning board asking for additional information about the impact of new developments on water tables after the 1996 report. She remembers being told that there was a way to look at this, but it would cost thousands of dollars, and it was not possible to deny development based on water availability. She asked if the County is now headed toward putting in development regulations based on water resources. Chair Jacobs said this situation was what raised the issue to the County Commissioners. Commissioner Price said there are other locations with regulations based on water availability. Chair Jacobs said this is one of the reasons that public hearings are valuable to the Board, as it allows them to hear public concerns, and it raises issues that might not have been heard otherwise. He said this is not just a scientific investigation; but there was some hope or intention that this would result in an impact on where things are sited. Commissioner Price questioned whether they have a right to regulate this. Commissioner Pelissier said when she was on the Commissioner for the Environment she was told that there was another County that has its zoning areas designated based on re- charge rates. Dave Stancil said Guilford County is the only other county where this level of detail has been done. Chair Jacobs said there was some discussion of this when the rural buffer was formed. He said it would be nice to have a narrative to go with this and to work toward making this a utilitarian effort. Dave Stancil said staff can provide some context and work with Craig Benedict to show how the protocol relates to the questions that have been asked. Tom Davis said data collection is on-going, and it would be good to install an automatic rain gauge to get the precipitation information. He said he has prepared annual reports, and these are available on-line. Tom Davis said there has been a lot of inedia coverage about hydrilla in the Eno River. He said a task force has been formed to work on this issue, and they are working toward developing a two year management study to address this issue. He anticipates coming to the Board in the future to request funding for this. 4. Jordan Lake Allocation Application Kevin Lindley said this process has been going on for several years in developing an allocation request. He said there is an existing one million gallon per day allocation with Jordan Lake and the County has been paying a maintenance amount of$2,200 per year for this allocation. He said this is a level two allocation, which means it is not planned to be used in the near future. He reviewed the following background information from the abstract: BACKGROUND: Orange County is in the process of applying for an increase in its existing Jordan Lake Allocation. The County currently holds an allocation of 1.0 million gallons per day (MGD) and is applying for an additional 0.5 MGD. This allocation is meant to provide a secure water supply through the year 2045 for portions of the County designated for economic growth. The County does not have a public water utility and there are no plans to develop a water utility service. Rather, the County will rely upon municipalities located adjacent to the economic development regions to provide the finished water. The Jordan Lake Allocation will be used to supplement the water supply of these municipalities, as needed. There are three areas of economic interest (see Attachment A) which staff used to develop estimates of future demand, the Buckhorn-Mebane area (western Orange), Hillsborough area (central Orange) and Eno area (eastern Orange). These areas already have or will have water supplied by the City of Mebane, Town of Hillsborough, and City of Durham, respectively. The water from Jordan Lake can be accessed via Durham's interconnect with the Town of Cary. The water would then be used to augment the Durham supply or sent to Hillsborough via the interconnect shared between Durham and Hillsborough. The Buckhorn-Mebane area is supplied by the City of Mebane as the area does not have a viable method to access an allocation from Jordan Lake. The City of Mebane has access to a robust supply of water from the reservoir it shares with the City of Graham. In addition, Mebane has interconnections that allow access to the City of Burlington's water system, which has a robust water supply in its own right. The water demand from the Buckhorn-Mebane area is expected to be met from Mebane's water supplies, without the need to supplement with Jordan Lake water. Orange County currently holds a Level II allocation. This means the water is not expected to be needed within the first five years of the thirty year demand projection. Typically, Level II allocations account for the projected need during the last 10-15 years of the thirty year water supply plan. The submitted allocation application requests an additional 0.5 MGD Level II allocation. The draft application also provides validation and peer-reviewed justification for the 1.0 MGD, Level II allocation the County currently holds. The draft application was submitted to the State Division of Water Resources on May 1, 2014. County staff had been working with the Jordan Lake Partnership (JLP), a group of representatives from several municipalities located near Jordan Lake, and the Triangle J Council of Governments to develop a cohesive plan which showed all projected water demands for the various entities and how these would be met using current water supplies and interconnections, Jordan Lake allocations, conservation and reuse, along with other future water supplies. The work done to develop a regionally coherent water supply plan which demonstrates how all JLP members will be able to meet water demands through the year 2060 developed into the Triangle Regional Water Supply Plan (Plan). The Plan is a clear demonstration that all of the individual partner requests for Jordan Lake allocations in the current round were arrived at through careful consideration of all members. In other words, the Plan gives regional context to each municipality's Jordan Lake request. The County's application for a Jordan Lake allocation is one piece of a regional "preferred solution" developed by the JLP to meet future water demands. County staff has received comments back from the Division of Water Resources regarding the County's draft allocation application. These comments will need to be incorporated into the application document and submitted as a final application by close of business on November 14, 2014. According to the Division of Water Resources project schedule, the applications will be forwarded to the Environmental Management Commission (EMC) and will be under review for approximately one year. The EMC is expected to approve or disapprove the allocation requests by November 2015. Craig Benedict said there are existing draws from Jordan Lake, but the state indicated that there was a planned expansion, and partners were encouraged to ask for their share of the expansion. He said the expansion will lead to another 95 million gallons per day, and the County is only asking for 0.5 million gallons of this. Chair Jacob asked if the lake itself is being expanded, or just the allocation of supply. Craig Benedict said this is just an expansion of the supply, as there are different layers of water that can be drawn from. Kevin Lindley said this round of allocation requests is set up for demand through 2045. He said through 2045, all of the projected partners requesting allocation would take 91-92 percent of the available supply. He said 100 percent would be allocated through 2060, but all of the demands could be met. Craig Benedict said presently this is in the application and study stage. He said staff has decided it is important to be at the table as part of the partnership to make sure the growth areas of Orange County and its municipalities are spoken for. He said the next phase is to decide how to accomplish this if the applications go through. He said the Board has developed inter-local utility agreements with Mebane and Durham, and these will be looked at again. He said one of these needs to be established with the Town of Hillsborough. Commissioner Gordon asked if Hillsborough stopped paying for their allocation. Kevin Lindley said he is not sure if Hillsborough had an allocation in the past, but they are applying for a 1 million gallon per day allocation in this round. Commissioner Gordon said it is her recollection that Hillsborough had an allocation in the past and then stopped paying for it. Chair Jacobs said this is his recollection. He said Orange County has been paying for years for getting an allocation, and Hillsborough stopped and is now eligible for another allotment. He said it seems to him that the money the County has paid should be applied by the state toward the County's ability to get additional allocation. Commissioner Gordon said it is not clear that you actually get an allocation at level two. She asked for clarification on how this works. She said it does not look like the 1.5 million will meet the needs out to 2060. She asked if there will be any consideration of the fact that the County has paid in the past. Craig Benedict said staff has looked at all of their available land and have come up with ample projections for water needs in the economic development zones. He said they believe that the 1.5m total will be enough for Hillsborough and the Eno. He said the city of Mebane has millions of gallons of existing infrastructure and treatment capacity to serve that 2,000 acre area that is part of the inter-local agreement. He said there is a prioritization given those paying level one. Kevin Lindley said if you convert a level two to a level one, you pay $90,000 in capitalization cost, and then annual payments remain the same. He said you have to convert from a level two to a level one. Commissioner asked if you have to use the water within a certain time frame if you convert to a level one. Craig Benedict said yes. He said prioritization is given to level one, but there is a reserve for level two applicants within the application program. Kevin Lindley said everyone has projected all of their demand through 2045, and some of this will be level two, and some will be level one. He said the regional plan shows that all of these demands can be met if the plans stay the same. Kevin Lindley said there will be future rounds to allocate the remainder of the lake. He said this application justifies why the County is asking for addition allocation when they have not used their current allocation for 20 years. Commissioner Pelissier said during the drought years ago she recalled a discussion about the state not allocating all of the water. She asked if there has been any further discussion of this. She thought the allocations were based on good years. Kevin Lindley said there have been recent models that show that the demands can be met without exhausting Jordan Lakes supply in the 30 year time period. Craig Benedict said the reason the study plan has gone on for 5 years is because there was uncertainty about the water level in the lake based on droughts that have occurred. He said additional analysis has been done over the last 10 years, which has delayed the application process. Commissioner Pelissier referred to attachment A and asked about a service area in the northern part of the map. Craig Benedict said the areas in blue are in the area of the new joint urban services boundary between Orange County and Hillsborough. He said what is not shown is the joint planning ETJ expansion area that was to be Hillsborough's jurisdiction. He said this will include all of the areas surrounding the blue and extending to the ETJ and the Hillsborough corporate limits. Commissioner Rich said she thought water was just being done for the economic development districts. Craig Benedict said the majority of the economic development areas are in the south side, but this is the County land use plan and it includes the urban growth areas. Commissioner Rich wanted to know if there was an inter-local agreement with Durham. Craig Benedict said there is an inter-local agreement with Mebane and Durham, but not with Hillsborough. Commissioner Rich asked how frequently staff updates these agreements. Craig Benedict said Mebane's started in 2003 and was updated in July 2012. He said the Durham agreement goes back to 2011 and will be updated soon due to land use issues and infrastructure costs. He said now that the ETJ swaps have been determined he has it on his work plan to move toward infrastructure agreement. He said there is money within the capital improvement program to help Hillsborough in some of the economic development zones with water and sewer. Commissioner Rich said it sounds like the updates are not on any specific schedule. Craig Benedict said there was a delay with Mebane, but he said there should be dialogue on an annual basis. Chair Jacobs said the Efland Mebane Small Area Plan recommended re-zoning the Morinaga area to commercial. He said this study was not finished until 2009, and all of this had to be changed and incorporated. Craig Benedict said the small area planning process identifies growth potential for certain areas and then comes up with a sequential plan, but this takes years to unfold. He said in the case of the Mebane Efland small area plan, the recommendations have been unfolded over the years. He said the economic development zones for the towns are being marketed more regularly and he believes the dialogue will continue on an annual basis. 5. Emerqency Communications Jim Groves said when this proposal was made to Bonnie Hammersley; he saw this as a two part process. He reviewed the following information from the memo in Attachment A: In establishing a communications capability, he said that it would fall into two (2) categories: 1) robust communications capability between each commissioner and their constituents, the County Manager, the Emergency Coordination Center (ECC), and County staff(as needed), and 2) the capability to conduct public meetings, including public access, when the BOCC may not be able to gather in a single facility or under the same roof (due to any reason). With Category 1, the group felt that improving the BOCC's capability to use their personal devices (phones) and email would be the best option. By using their email addresses, OCES could push out Situation Reports on the Emergency or Disaster to keep them informed and able to answer questions by their constituents. OCES can also revise the elected official's disaster guideline to provide more detail on how and whom to communicate with during emergencies and disasters. To enable the BOCC to make calls, we propose that each Commissioner and County Manager's staff be registered with the Government Emergency Telecommunications Service (GETS), which provides a free priority mechanism to make landline calls. Basically this service routes calls by dialing dedicated telephone numbers followed by a pass code to process the call. We also propose that each Commissioner and County Manager's staff be registered with the Wireless Priority System (WPS), which is a fee based service (about $5 per device per month) that gives wireless phones priority access to cell towers. In addition, WPS and GETS can be used jointly if the need arises. Jim Groves handed out GETS cards to the Commissioners. He said this card can be used dialing a 710 area code before the number you are calling. He said you would then enter a pin that will increase your opportunity to get through when lines are congested. He said it will not help if infrastructure is damaged or down. He said the system will not knock off callers already on the phone, but it will place the call in a que with priority status. Jim Groves asked if the Commissioners want to pursue the Wireless Priority Service. Commissioner Price asked if the GETS card is active now and if it can go from cell phones to land lines. Jim Groves answered yes. He said a cell phone or land line can be used to go through the GETS line. He said if you use a mobile device, it has to hit the cell tower, and this may not be possible without the WPS. Commissioner porosin asked for clarification on scenarios where the Board would need this. He said he is not the person that needs to get through to coordinate rescue efforts during an emergency. Jim Groves said this is for use in the case of a major malfunction that affects a lot of residents in Orange County. He said in this case, he and the manager would be asking the Commissioners to interface with constituents to find out areas of unmet needs. He said this information will be useful in helping allocate resources. Jim Groves said the next piece to consider is a scenario where you are unable to meet in a public place to do County business. He said one option is to use a conference line that would even allow the public to dial in and listen. He said it would be possible to have access to about 50 lines, and this could be done using the existing County infrastructure or a third party vendor. He asked for input on how many lines would be needed for public access. Commissioner Rich asked if these lines would be needed so that it could still be considered an open meeting. She asked how the public would know the Board is meeting. Jim Groves said the Public Affairs Office would be responsible for pushing this information out to the public. Chair Jacobs said the bigger the crisis, the more people who will want to know what is going on. He said this makes it hard to determine how many lines would be needed. Jim Groves agreed. He said one option is to use some of the existing television and community broadcasting stations. He said these are other ways to make it accessible to the public. Chair Jacobs said there was an instance several years ago of a fire in Cary, and residents were told to shelter inside. He said people in this case have to rely on a television station, but there is no 24 hour television station in rural Orange County. He said the Board would be the 24 hours news entity for the residents. Jim Groves said the most accessible way would be the conference call option. He said most residents have a telephone, but not everyone has cable or internet access. Chair Jacobs said part of this concerns what the Board has adopted as the rules of procedure. He said this would need to be addressed with the attorney. Chair Jacobs said there are scenarios that would require the Board to meet without doing so in person. Jim Groves said phone conference and web conference are the basic options. He said the top tier would be to have a dedicated video conference, and this could be fully controllable. He said this would require a dedicated line to each of the Commissioners, the attorney, and the clerk. He said he did an estimate of 10 dedicated lines. He said these systems, called polycoms or Cisco, range from $2,000 to $16,000. He priced a middle of the line $6,500 polycom for 10 lines, which came out to $65,000. He said the internet pipeway required for each line would be and the lines would be $700 a month, which comes out to $89,000 per year. He said this brings the total startup cost of$149,000 and then an annual cost of $84,000. Commissioner McKee said he does not feel good about spending that type of money on video conferencing that would only be used for rare occurrences. Commissioner Price asked for clarification on the conference line. She asked what would be discussed in a conference call. She wondered if the general public needs to listen in if there is an emergency situation and the Board is trying to determine a course of action. She questioned whether the Board can meet in closed session by telephone. She is concerned that there may be mayhem. Chair Jacobs said there is no need to have public comment in this case. He said these calls may be updates from the Emergency Service Director, or the Health Director, and the line would just allow the public access. He said once four or more of the Commissioners get on a phone call, it is a public meeting, and the public would need to have access even if they do not participate. He gave examples of situations where information may need to be shared to make decisions about how the County should operate. John Roberts said it is okay to have a conference call meeting, and the Board would need to amend their procedures to address this. Chair Jacobs said the call could also be recorded and made available to members of the public who were not able to be on. Donna Baker said she would work with the County Attorney's office to update the Board of County Commissioners' procedures manual to reflect polices on meeting by conference call. Commissioner Rich said she received this information in the strategic communications meeting. She said the opinion was that the video call was overkill, but the communications team did like the idea of the Commissioners being able to have a meeting in the event of an emergency. Commissioner Gordon asked how emergency communications fit into the overall strategic plan. She said it would be good to contemplate the rules and situations for when these conference calls need to occur. Jim Groves handed out an elected officials guide to emergencies and disasters. He said when there is a significant disaster the 911 folks will call him in addition to dispatching responders. He said if it the situation is significant enough that the Commissioners might receive inquiries, he will give the County Manager a phone call briefing. He said Bonnie Hammersley will then reach out to interface with the Board. Jim Groves said other than outreach activities, emergency communications does not do day to day County communication business. He said Carla Banks does a great job of this with the Public Affairs office. Jim Groves said anytime the Emergency Coordination Center (ECC) is activated, different aspects are activated to collect and disperse information. He said with the system is an Emergency Support Function 15 (ESF-15) that is basically public affairs and public information. He said his staff would use Carla Banks and David Hunt to interface with different public information officers around the County. He said a new system call Everbridge has just been implemented, and this is similar to Code Red, but it is much more robust. He said this system can push information out and can reach every phone number, including unlisted numbers to deliver messages. He said there is an option to opt in for weather and other alerts. He said staff is also working with Information Technology to incorporate the County personnel database so that information can be pushed out to every single employee. Jim Groves said Everbridge will allow for certain geographic areas to be selected and then only those phone numbers will be reached. He said it also integrates with the federal alert system. Jim Groves said Emergency Services has something called WebOc where situational reports are published. He asked for input on how the Board would like this information to be shared. Commissioner Price said some counties that have an app available for cell phones. She asked if this would be effective in Orange County for pushing out information. Jim Groves said WebOC is not an app, but Everbridge does have an app. He said Everbridge will also allow for impromptu conference calls to from a mobile device. Commissioner Price said she is just wondering if it might be easier to just punch an icon to get information. Jim Groves said it is a great idea if people have online access. Commissioner McKee said during the NC Association of County Commissioners (NCACC) conference there was a session for working with the media using prepared statements. He said it might be a good idea at some point to develop some set statements for media releases. He said this would help control the message and avoid an escalation of events due to poor statements by elected officials. Chair Jacobs said he thinks about this in terms of how to get messages when there is no electricity. Jim Groves said if technology fails, the fallback is PA announcements or flyers for long term events. Chair Jacobs said his experience with lack of electricity is that land lines are the only thing that keeps operating. He said this speaks to Commissioner porosin's question about the advantages of having priority access on the phone lines. Chair Jacobs said he hopes Emergency Services are using the incidents of the ice storm as a base line. Commissioner Gordon asked if this is the actual Emergency Strategic Communications Plan. Jim Groves said this is for Emergency Services use. He said the larger strategic plan should just reference the Emergency Operations Plan (EOP). He said information will be pushed out through the ESF-15 or public affairs. He said the EOP resides within emergency services and on their S drive. Bonnie Hammersley said the Strategic Communications Plan should include a reference to the EOP. She said this plan has been available for years but it has been updated and is more readily available due to technology. Commissioner Price asked about the interoperability with the towns. Jim Groves said the towns have been pulled in from the beginning, before this system was even proposed. He said Chapel Hill, Carrboro and OWASA have fully bought into the Everbridge system. Commissioner Price asked who pushes out information in an event where Chapel Hill gets a hold of it first. Jim Groves said it depends on the situation, and this would be up to the town. He said the relationship and the communication have been very good. Bonnie Hammersley said whenever the ECC is activated she will inform all of the Board of County Commissioners. She said if there is a disaster only in Chapel Hill, the ECC will be activated and everyone will know about it. Bonnie Hammersley said the GETS cards are important so that the Commissioners can contact her or Jim Groves in the event of an emergency to notify them of issues in their local neighborhoods. 6. Website Desiqn Presentation Carla Banks reviewed the following PowerPoint slides. WEB SITE REDESIGN Presented By: Public Affairs & Information Technologies Introduction In May of 2014, the contract with Revize was approved and the first of three payments was submitted to get the design process underway. Also, a Web site Design Committee was assembled to guide the design efforts. The committee is made up of representatives from the following County departments: • Library • Aging • Animal Services • Health Department • Clerk's Office • Economic Development • Environment, Agriculture, Parks & Recreation • Information Technologies • Public Affairs Project Action Items • In August, the Design Committee received the second of three initial design concepts • In September, the Web Masters were consulted for input on the current design concept (version 2 of 3) and their feedback was solicited in a survey. • The Web Masters shared the design concept with their respective department heads for additional feedback to aid in completing the survey • Two Public Focus Groups were held in mid-September to solicit input from residents regarding the design Survey The County's new Web site design concept was presented to two public facing focus groups. It was also offered to all Orange County departments (Department Directors & Web Masters) in the form of a survey. The focus groups and County departments were asked five questions specific to the design concept. They were also given the opportunity to provide the design team with additional feedback and suggestions. Design Concept (visual) Next Steps Seek feedback from the Board regarding the design concept and whether staff is moving in the right direction Design Committee will meet on October 17th to discuss and process the feedback from the Board and other stakeholders • Changes will be submitted to the vendor based on feedback received from all stakeholders • Once the design is finalized, the next step is to focus on designing the departmental pages • Web Masters are working on "content" placement within the navigation • The Board will receive additional updates leading up to the launch of the Web site, which is anticipated to happen in early 2015 Carla Banks said the goal is to make the site more user-friendly. She said the photo section will rotate to showcase the features of Orange County. She said this new website also offers the option to translate the site to different languages. Chair Jacobs asked for clarification on the feedback being requested. Jim Northrup said staff is considering the Board of County Commissioners as one of several groups looking at this design. He said they are looking for general feedback from Board of County Commissioners. Commissioner Price asked what languages are offered as translation. Carla Banks said viewers can chose from a listing of languages. Commissioner Price said she was concerned with which specific languages will be available. She asked about Spanish and Mandarin translation. Carla Banks said she will check with the vendor on this. Commissioner Gordon asked what was presented to the focus groups. She said she does not know how to react to the categories when they are static and you cannot see what is under them. Carla Banks said the goal was just to accomplish a design, and they have not gotten to the usability aspect of the site yet. Commissioner Gordon said she thinks the colors are very intense, and this may not be as readable as some other sites. Commissioner porosin said he liked the colors, and he thinks this is a vast improvement on what the County has now. He suggested looking at the current website and considering the five most commonly used items if you want to know about content. He said this proposal is an improvement over the current text heavy site. He likes the search bar. Commissioner Pelissier said she likes the general format. She said the search feature is very important. She asked how many members of the public gave feedback. Jim Northrup said there were two small focus groups of customers from the Library and the Department on Aging. Commissioner Pelissier said the Board has said in the past that they would like a way for the public to leave comments. She questioned whether this warrants some space or a special tab. Commissioner Rich said the strategic communications group discussed the public comments issue today, and this being discussed as part of that plan. Commissioner Rich said she liked the new design, and it is nice that it is not so text heavy. She agrees that the search on the present website does not work well and this is an important feature to get right. Commissioner Rich said it is important to make it easy to find phone numbers and addresses. Commissioner porosin said he would support having the main number at the bottom of the first page. He would like to see a "contact us" tab on the front page in a big blue box that links to a contact list of every department head. Jim Northrup said the "contact us" will be on every page above the search tab. He said each department will also have a "contact us" on their individual page. Commissioner porosin said it should be as few clicks as possible to get to the contact information for the department heads. Commissioner Price echoed Commissioner porosin and Commissioner Rich's comments about the contact information. She asked about the "stay connected" link. Carla Banks said this will give a listing of all of the Facebook and Twitter social media pages. Commissioner Price said she just thinks the contact information should be easy to access and should be a one click item. Commissioner McKee also agreed with the previous comments. He said once they get this up and running they need to visit the issue of the main phone line. Chair Jacobs asked how staff reconciles the differing opinions of the County departments and the opinions of the focus groups. Jim Northrup said staff mainly looked at the average and above ratings. He said there was not that much disparity when you looked at it this way. He said the meetings being held are with the cross sections of the departments. He said staff is reconciling the opinions of the public and the designs of the department. Chair Jacobs noted some specific examples from the survey results. Bonnie Hammersley said this website is being built for the public, and it is more important to focus on the audience. She said content is important, but it is most important that the public can get information from their government. Chair Jacobs agreed with the comments from the other Commissioners. He said he likes the colors, but he feels that some of the tabs are not clear. Carla Banks said the tabs were categorized based on who would come to the site. She said the resident tab is for people who live here; the business tab is for local businesses; and there is also a visitor tab. Chair Jacobs said he feels some of this is redundant. He likes that there is a tab that gives access to other County governmental sites. Chair Jacobs said the Board received an email recently about a situation where a vendor was linked to the health department's page. He asked if the County allows links for "for profit" businesses. He would like to see a weather button link on the site. Jim Northrup said there is no policy for links on the County pages. Chair Jacobs said he feels there should be a policy in place. Carla Banks said government sites usually don't have links to for-profit groups. Jim Northrup said a policy could be put in place. Carla Banks said a weather visual could be added. Commissioner porosin suggested staff look at the Wake County site. He said there is a drop down menu under each tab. Carla Banks said this is the idea for this page. Commissioner Rich said the term "stay connected" is widely used. Commissioner Rich said she loves the idea of adding the forecast to front page. Commissioner Gordon asked about the "community giving" tab. Carla Banks said that is for the Orange County Community Giving fund, and that tab will take you to that website. Commissioner Price said she is checking other county websites and she sees the visitor and community member tabs. She would like to see what is going to go under these tabs on the Orange County website. Carla Banks said the goal was to pick categories that better organize the content. Jim Northup said staff is looking at budgeting every 2-3 years for refreshing and revising the web site design. Chair Jacobs expressed appreciation for the improvements and the update. He asked about next steps. Jim Northup said staff will report back to the Board on the usability and will plan to launch the site in early 2015. 7. Board of Commissioners Meetinq Calendar for Year 2015 DEFERRED A motion was made by Commissioner Pelissier, seconded by Commissioner Price to adjourn the meeting at 10:21 p.m. VOTE: UNANIMOUS Barry Jacobs, Chair Donna Baker, Clerk to the Board Orange County Board of Commissioners' regular meetings and work sessions are available via live streaming video at oranqecountync.qov/occlerks/qranicus.asp and Orange County Gov-TV on channels 1301 or 97.6 (Time Warner Cable).