Boards to Give Feedback to OWASA

Officials from Chapel Hill, Carrboro and Orange County will give the Orange Water and Sewer Authority feedback on its new, more strict draft of the area's water conservation rules at a joint meeting tonight.

The meeting will be an opportunity for the local governments to make suggestions about the OWASA board of directors' latest draft of the rules before the board finalizes its proposal and sends it back to the governments for ratification.

"This meeting is important because OWASA would like to complete our draft as a proposal that we can give back to local governments as soon as possible," said OWASA Executive Director Ed Kerwin.

OWASA has not received any advice from local officials while drafting the new Water Conservation Rules and Standards so far, but it has received feedback from citizens at public hearings, Kerwin said.

Local officials said they will look at the latest draft to see if OWASA has addressed procedural problems that occurred during last year's drought.

Chapel Hill Town Council member Pat Evans said she hopes the board of directors includes a quicker timetable for implementing the stages of mandatory water restrictions.

Evans said that last year there was a lag between the time when local governments, along with OWASA, decided to move to the next restriction stage and the time when OWASA announced the decision to citizens.

"When OWASA would come before us and we decided to go to the next stage, they wouldn't implement it right away," Evans said. "So you would have people watering their lawns when they weren't supposed to until they made the announcement."

Orange County Commissioner Moses Carey said another problem associated with last year's drought response was that the water restriction stages were not coordinated throughout the county.

"With the old system, having Phase II (restrictions) means something different in Orange County, Chapel Hill and Hillsborough," he said. "We need to eliminate those differences."

The local governments generally will look at whether OWASA's new draft will make the area more prepared for a water shortage, Carey said. "We all learned something from the last drought."

One group of citizens that was especially hurt by last year's drought and resulting restrictions were businesses that depend on water, such as gardeners and greenhouses, Evans said.

Local gardening business owners have been vocal at all of OWASA's forums since the revisions began last October, and Evans said she will look at the board's new, more flexible restrictions for such businesses.

Carrboro Board of Aldermen member Jacquelyn Gist said she hopes to reduce the impact a drought might have on the community as a whole.

"I'm looking for a way that we can use water more wisely so that we don't get in a situation as drastic as last summer."

The City Editor can be reached at citydesk@unc.edu.