CHAPEL HILL -- The Chapel Hill Town Council split strongly Monday night over its water utility's plans to tap Jordan Lake in case of an emergency.
The state is reviewing lake allocations. The Orange Water and Sewer Authority, which also serves Carrboro and UNC-Chapel Hill, asked the council to officially support retaining the utility's 5 million-gallons-per-day allocation and keep the utility in the regional partnership that controls the lake's future.
OWASA's plan, supported by UNC-CH and the Chapel Hill-Carrboro Chamber of Commerce, received the town's support Feb. 28. But council members voted to reconsider and voted 7-2 on Monday to oppose the plan, which would allow the utility to tap the lake even before emergency conservation measures.
Council member Sally Greene said the town has consistently opposed drawing water from the polluted lake.
"That has been the position of Chapel Hill," she said. "Jordan Lake didn't need to exist, and we certainly didn't need to drink from it."
Council member Penny Rich, a former OWASA board member, remembers being told OWASA's water supply would last 50 years. "Why has that changed?" she asked. "Did we make a mistake in our calculations?"
OWASA board Chairman Gordon Merklein and other officials said retaining the allocation wouldn't mean using it. Not acting now could jeopardize future access, they said.
"If we lose that allocation, we also lose our seat at the table," Merklein said.
The utility sees the lake as an insurance policy, said council members Matt Czajkowski and Gene Pease, who served on the OWASA board when the water supply hit 30 percent in the last drought.
"The emergency plan that OWASA put forth was frightening," Pease said. "If you think the last rate increases were bad, these would have been geometric increases."
OWASA has paid more $200,000 since 1988 to retain its water allocation, which it has not used. The utility draws water from Cane Creek Reservoir and University Lake, and will draw from the Quarry Reservoir in 2035. It will have to revise its plan to get the town's support.
