Jordan Lake
Rules
Complete information regarding the
proposed Jordan Lake Nutrient Strategy
can be found on the NC Division of Water
Quality website.
Current status (April,
2008):
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A public comment period for the
proposed set of rules comprising
the Jordan Reservoir Nutrient
Strategy was held from
June 15 to September 15,
2007.
A revised set of rules has
been proposed. Click here
to view the
new Jordan Lake Rules.
The NC Division of Water Quality
will present the revised set of
rules
and Report of
Proceedings to the EMC
on May 8, 2008. The new
rule is expected to be approved
by the EMC.
Following adoption by the
Environmental Management
Commission, the rules must be
approved by the Rules Review
Commission, a legislatively
appointed body that meets
monthly throughout the year.
Rules then either become
effective following RRC approval
or, if a sufficient number of
objections are filed to a rule,
it is reviewed by the next
session of the NC General
Assembly.
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The PTCOG
will sponsor a briefing on the revised
Jordan Lake Rules on Tuesday, May 20,
2008 from 10:00 am until noon at the
Greensboro Coliseum Special Events
Center. The briefing is open
to elected officials, planning boards,
city managers, local government staff
members, and the development community.
Please plan to attend.
Presentation,
Materials and Information (for
download):
Draft Rules and
other information:
Background: About the Jordan
Lake Rules
The Jordan Lake
rules will change how development occurs
in the watershed. In their current
form, these rules will be the strictest
watershed rules to date in North
Carolina with the inclusion of measures
that will require retrofitting of current
development. All
or a portion of four counties and
sixteen cities will be impacted by these
rules in the PTCOG region. Even those
cities and counties that fall under
Phase II stormwater regulations will
have additional requirements.
Jordan Reservoir is a multi-use
impoundment operated by the U.S. Army
Corps of Engineers. The reservoir was
formed with the construction of a dam on
the Haw River in the Cape Fear River
Basin. The lake covers an area of 13,940
acres at elevation 216 feet msl (mean
sea level), the normal operating
level. The lake is operated for flood
control, water quality (low flow
augmentation), fish and wildlife
conservation, recreation, and water
supply.
Jordan Reservoir consists of two
distinct arms - the Haw River and New
Hope Creek arms. The Haw River Arm of
the lake has an average hydraulic
retention time of five days and accounts
for 70 to 90 percent of the annual flow
through Jordan Reservoir. The New Hope
Creek Arm of the lake has an average
hydraulic retention time of 418 days.
The Jordan Reservoir watershed
encompasses 1,686 square miles and
includes parts of Alamance, Caswell,
Chatham, Durham, Forsyth, Guilford,
Orange, Randolph, Rockingham, and Wake
counties. It includes all or portions of
the urban areas of Durham, Chapel Hill,
Cary, Burlington, Greensboro, and
several other small municipalities.
The Jordan Lake/Haw River Watershed is
considered a nutrient sensitive
watershed (NSW). This means Jordan Lake and
its source waters are nutrient enriched
causing algal blooms and taste and odor
problems in drinking water.
The B. Everett Jordan Reservoir (Jordan
Reservoir) Nutrient Management Strategy
and Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) was
developed to satisfy state Nutrient
Sensitive Water (NSW) requirements and a
federally-mandated TMDL. Both the NSW
and TMDL programs include the
development of a calibrated nutrient
response model to support a management
strategy to control nutrients and meet
the state chlorophyll a standard.
The Clean Water Responsibility Act of
1997 (often referred to as House Bill
515) included legislation to further
address water quality problems in NSW
waters (NC General Statute 143-
215.1(c1) to (c5)). The act set total
nitrogen (TN) and total phosphorus (TP)
NPDES permit limits for
facilities discharging greater than 0.5
MGD into the Jordan Reservoir/Haw River
watershed. A 5-year compliance
period for limits of 5.5 mg/L of TN and
2.0 mg/L of TP was established for
qualifying wastewater facilities. The
act provides conditions for an extended
compliance period, including the
development of a calibrated nutrient
response model and the development of
plans to optimize nutrient removal at
the wastewater facility. The
municipalities of Greensboro, Mebane,
Reidsville, Graham, Pittsboro, and
Burlington, and the Orange Water and
Sewer Authority (OWASA) were granted a
compliance extension in 1999. Facilities
that did not seek compliance are the
City of Durham/Durham South wastewater
treatment plant (WWTP) and the Durham
County/ Triangle WWTP. Conditions
associated with the extended compliance
period were achieved and the calibrated
nutrient response model was accepted by
the Water Quality Committee (WQC) of the
Environmental Management Commission
(EMC) in July 2002.
The first draft of the Jordan Lake
Rules, which provide a mechanism for the
State to enforce the nutrient limits and
implement the management strategy, was
released in September 2005. The
majority of local governments located in
the Jordan Lake Watershed will be
impacted by the rules. Proximity to an
urbanized area will not matter. The
main categories covered by the rules are
as follows.
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Reduction goals
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Fertilizer applicators
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Agricultural strategy
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Stormwater management for new
development
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Stormwater management for existing
development
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Riparian buffers
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Wastewater discharge requirements
-
DOT stormwater requirements
For more information contact Ginger
Booker, Assistant Director, PTCOG
gbooker@ptcog.org
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Old Jordan Lake
Rules -
published in the state register,
June 15, 2007 (.pdf
format, begins on page 2257)
Background:
About the Jordan Lake Rules
About
the Haw River Clean Water Agencies
Glossary of Terms
Jordan Lake
Watershed Map
Map of Affected Areas
Haw
River Clean Water Agencies
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Alamance County
Caswell County
Guilford County
Rockingham County
Alamance
Burlington
Elon
Gibsonville
Graham
Green Level
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Greensboro
Haw River
Mebane
Oak Ridge
Pleasant Garden
Sedalia
Summerfield
Stokesdale
Whitsett |
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The Haw River Clean Water
Agencies is a stakeholder group comprised of
local government staff from the counties, cities
and towns in the Haw River sub basin. They have
been meeting regularly as participants in the
rule making process and as a group mobilized to
pursue the best possible outcome for our local
governments in this process.
These are career professionals in engineering,
planning, stormwater, drinking water and
wastewater treatment who are dedicated to
protecting the environment and improving water
quality.
They are also responsible stewards of public
funds with a clear understanding of the issues,
the technologies, water quality imperatives and
the costs of implementation.
Map of the Areas
Affected by the Jordan Lake Rules
Glossary of Terms
chlorophyll-a –
used to measure the amount of algae
in water bodies. Sampling for
and measuring all the types and amounts of
algae in any given waterbody is costly and
technically impossible.
Instead, water experts measure the
concentration of chlorophyl-a.
This provides a reasonable estimate
of algal biomass. Chlorophyll-a is the green
pigment that is responsible for a plant's
ability to convert sunlight into the
chemical energy needed to change
CO2 into carbohydrates.
non
point source pollution:
Water runoff without a single point of
origin that flows over the surface of the
ground by irrigation water or stormwater and
is then introduced to surface or ground
waters. NPSs
include atmospheric deposition and runoff or
leaching from agricultural lands, urban
areas, unvegetated lands, onsite sewage
treatment and disposal systems, and
construction sites.
NPDES (National
Pollutant Discharge Elimination System):
In
1972, the National Pollutant Discharge
Elimination System program was
established under the authority of the
Clean Water Act.
It is a national
system for issuing, modifying, revoking,
monitoring and enforcing permits.
NPDES permits regulate point
sources of pollution.
The system also imposes and
enforces pretreatment requirements.
NPDES Phase I:
Phase
I of the NPDES stormwater program was
established in 1990 and required NPDES
permit coverage for large or medium
municipalities that had populations of
100,000 or more.
The City of Greensboro was among
the six communities identified in Phase
I.
NPDES Phase II:
Phase
II of the NPDES Stormwater program was
signed into law in December 1999.
This regulation requires that
smaller communities, also known as small
municipal separate storm sewer systems (MS4s),
be permitted.
Regulated small
MS4s applied for permit coverage
by March 2003. Those
communities permitted under Phase II are
required to develop and implement a
comprehensive stormwater management
program that includes six minimum
measures: (1) public education and
outreach on stormwater impacts; (2)
public involvement/participation; (3)
illicit discharge detection and
elimination; (4) construction site
stormwater runoff control; (5)
post-construction stormwater management
for new development and redevelopment;
and (6) pollution prevention/good
housekeeping for municipal operations.
nutrient—An
element or compound essential for animal and
plant growth.
Common nutrients in fertilizer include
nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium.
residence time:
The length
of time that a pollutant remains within a
section of a stream or river.
The residence
time is determined by the streamflow and the
volume of the river reach or the
average stream velocity and the length of
the river reach.
TMDL (total
maximum daily load) - defines the
total pollutant loading a water body can
receive and still meet the applicable water
quality standards. A TMDL is developed from
a study that identifies the sources of a
particular pollutant in a watershed, the
pollutant contribution from each source, and
the pollutant reduction required from those
sources to attain and maintain water quality
standards.
turbidity
- how clear the water is. The greater the
amount of total suspended solids (TSS) in
the water, the murkier it appears and the
higher the measured turbidity. A major
source of turbidity is clays and silts
from shoreline
erosion and resuspended bottom sediments.
watershed:
Also called a drainage basin.
This is an area of land that allows
rainwater to flow into creeks, streams and
rivers.
Watersheds range in size from a few acres to
large areas of the country. Large watersheds
are sometimes referred
to as river basins or sub basins.
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