RALEIGH -- Cleaning up the polluted waters of Falls Lake could cost $1.5 billion, and local governments will shoulder most of that cost, according to an N.C. Division of Water Quality fiscal analysis released Wednesday.
The figure, based on a 25-year cleanup, was calculated as the state enters into the final stages of hammering out a plan to rid the nearly 12,500-acre reservoir of high levels of nitrogen and phosphorous. Those pollutants threaten the source of drinking water for nearly half a million people in Wake County and could limit growth if not cleaned up.
"They're fairly sobering numbers," said Drew Cummings, an assistant Durham County manager.
The state's fiscal estimate doesn't break down the share of costs for each local government with a stake in Falls Lake. But the estimate make it clear that local communities will shoulder the bulk of the cost. Private industry and the state and federal governments would pay smaller portions.
The 240-page fiscal analysis of the plan, which includes the $1.5 billion estimate, will be released later this week. A draft copy was obtained by The News & Observer late Wednesday after a public records request.
Cleaning up Falls Lake, and how to pay for it, have been major issues for Raleigh and Durham, the two communities with the most at stake.
Much of the man-made reservoir's watershed is in Durham and Durham County, where sediment-laden stormwater runs off pavement in the urban core into streams, creeks and rivers that feed the lake.
Raleigh and Wake County, Durham's neighbors to the southeast, stand to gain the most from cleaning up Falls Lake but have little developed land that feeds polluted runoff into the Falls Lake watershed. Raleigh gets almost all its drinking water from the lake, however, and might have to spend millions of dollars upgrading its existing water-treatment plant if the cleanup doesn't move quickly enough.
"Whatever jurisdiction that's causing pollution, whether it's private landowners or public entities, should be responsible for their own cleanup," said Raleigh Mayor Charles Meeker.
Five years after the state legislature recognized the need to clean up the reservoir, the state Environmental Management Commission is developing a strategy to reduce pollutants flowing into the lake from streams and rivers in Orange, Person, Granville, Wake and Durham counties.
The environmental commission could make its decision about the proposed plan as early as November.
The $1.5 billion cost to fix Falls Lake is on the high end and could change over the next 25 years, said Rich Gannon, a state water quality supervisor working on the Falls Lake plan.
If the cleanup cost reaches $1.5 billion, it would average about $60 million a year. In comparison, Durham recently spent $44 million building its new performing arts center, and the new Raleigh Convention Center cost more than $220 million.
