Talks begin on new water-sharing deal

Fast-growing Chatham County wants to draw more from Jordan Lake

CHAPEL HILL -- Elected officials from Orange and Chatham counties are in discussions that could lead to a new deal to draw water from Jordan Lake.

Faced with projections of explosive population growth, Chatham officials see their future need for water increasing. The Orange Water and Sewer Authority has a larger water allocation than it anticipates needing and owns a plot of land near what may be the only appropriate place for a second water intake system on Jordan Lake.

Members of both county boards of commissioners, the mayors of Chapel Hill and Pittsboro and representatives from OWASA, UNC-Chapel Hill and Carrboro met Tuesday for a wide-ranging discussion of regional cooperation.

"We have a lot of challenges facing us in Chatham County regarding our infrastructure, and certainly water is high on our list," said George Lucier, vice chairman of the Chatham commissioners.

Chatham currently has an agreement to draw 6 million gallons per day from Jordan Lake through an intake operated by the town of Cary. But one growth projection shows the population in northeastern Chatham alone increasing by 83,000 people by 2035.

A water allocation large enough to accommodate that population surge, they say, will only be granted to a regional partnership.

"It's inevitable, there's just no way around it," said David Hughes, Chatham public works director.

Jordan Lake and its water supplies are controlled by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and state Division of Water Resources.

OWASA, the nonprofit water agency that serves the Carrboro-Chapel Hill area, owns about 125 acres just south of the U.S. 64 bridge on the western side of the lake. The site is near a recommended water intake site that OWASA documents say the Corps of Engineers indicated would likely be the only other intake site allowed on the lake.

OWASA has a 5 million gallon-per-day allocation, but says it hopes to avoid having to use any of it. That means it's unlikely to pay the cost -- potentially more than $40 million -- to develop facilities there on its own.

Authority officials, however, are interested in a project that would have regional benefits, and they have already begun talking with Chatham County.

Pittsboro Mayor Randolph Voller urged the group to be consistent in its message of regional cooperation.

"The private sector is going to force our hand," he said. "If Pittsboro starts coughing, you all are going to catch a cold."

The group also discussed the potential for shared use of parks in Chapel Hill and northern Chatham, watershed protection and transportation. Much of the discussion centered on Chatham's growth and how residents there would commute to UNC-CH. The officials seemed to be in agreement that the area's transportation future lies in public transportation, not wider roads.

The group plans to meet again in October.