Western Triangle will discuss water supply

CHAPEL HILL -- In 50 years, how will Orange, Durham and Chatham counties provide enough water for their residents?

Representatives from each jurisdiction will talk about some of their long-term water plans Thursday night in Chapel Hill.

Part of the discussion will be about Jordan Lake, where several local jurisdictions have water allocations, including the three western Triangle counties and Cary, Apex, Wake County, Morrisville and Holly Springs.

The city of Durham has rights to as much as 10 million gallons per day. Chatham has rights to 6 million gallons. Orange County has rights to 1 million gallons. And the Orange Water and Sewer Authority, which serves Chapel Hill, Carrboro and UNC-Chapel Hill, has a share of 5 million gallons per day.

Currently, neither OWASA nor Orange County is using the lake.

"There are no plans in place for how OWASA or Orange County would access that water," said Ed Holland, OWASA's planning director. "That's what the new discussions are dealing with."

Chatham County was getting ready to expand a water plant on Jordan Lake when the opportunity arose to partner with Durham, said David Hughes, Chatham's director of public works.

Recently Chatham signed a contract with Durham to provide water from its western plant. Starting next spring, Chatham will be able to draw a million gallons of water per day from Durham's western uptake plant on the reservoir, with the opportunity to expand by a million every other year up to 4 million gallons per day, Hughes said.

For OWASA, any discussion about Jordan Lake is taking place as part of an update of its long-term water supply through 2060.

OWASA is looking at whether a partnership at Jordan Lake makes more sense than other options such as expanding Cane Creek Reservoir and University Lake, constructing a new dam and reservoir on Sevenmile Creek south of Hillsborough, building permanent facilities to withdraw water from the Haw River and expanding its reclaimed-water system.

The water authority's current plans through 2050 call for expanding the Stone Quarry Reservoir, but that won't be available until the early 2030s.

Two severe droughts in seven years have raised questions about whether OWASA can wait that long, Holland said.