AGENDA ITEM EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
ITEM TITLE*
title
Jordan Lake One Water (JLOW) Staff Update
presenter
RESPONSIBLE STAFF, TITLE, DEPARTMENT*
Chris Roberts, Manager of Engineering and Infrastructure, Public Works Department
STAFF RECOMMENDATION*
Staff recommends that Council accept this report.
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BACKGROUND AND CONTEXT*
The Jordan Lake Nutrient Strategy Rules were put in place 16 years ago to protect the water quality of Jordan Lake. Local governments (including Chapel Hill) were required to adopt applicable ordinances to meet these rules. Since then, some rule implementations have been delayed, others have been modified. The state is in the process of updating and re-adopting these rules that the Town will again have to meet. Jordan Lake One Water has been created to work with local governments to assist in a collaborative way to meet these rules, given the state allows for these alternatives.
The re-adoption schedule began in 2020 and may not end for another couple of years. During this time, Town staff have been involved in the various work groups created by the state and JLOW to provide input on what we would like to see in the rules.
The Town will need to decide at a later stage of rule re-adoption process on what level of participation with JLOW it would like to maintain.
In 2009, a set of rules were placed into law for the protection of Jordan Lake. As the Town is within the Jordan Lake watershed, it is required to implement and enforce applicable rules. Currently, the applicable rules are for Existing Development (Phase 1), the protection of riparian buffers, and fertilizer management. There are other rules related to development that where delayed.
The session laws for these rules require a readoption process, which began in 2020. As part of this ongoing process NC Division of Water Resource (DWR) is participating in facilitated stakeholder engagement beginning in 2023 with creating Technical Advisory Groups (TAG) so that stockholders could...
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