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nov__3_boc_agenda_and_meeting_packet.pdf |
Commissioners will meet this monday (Nov 3rd) at 7pm in the womack building. They will be discussing the potential lake Adger Agreement with Inman-Campobello Water District but say that they will NOT vote on it (discussion only on the agenda). Find the Agenda AND the latest agreement in the following .pdf packet. Get involved in your local government - hope to see YOU there! ![]()
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Improving Polk County’s Water System With Inman-Campobello Water District
Questions & Answers: Lake Adger 1. Why is this agreement needed for Polk County’s water system, its citizens and Lake Adger? Polk County wants to continue expanding the water system countywide to support good growth, jobs and protect the community’s vitality well into the future. Creating and managing a high quality, affordable water system is key to these goals. Expanding the existing partnership allows Polk County to take full advantage of ICWD’s engineering, maintenance and water system management expertise at the most affordable cost. Increasing the county’s access to more water sources outside of Polk County and long-range planning to expand water distribution are also critical needs. The county estimates the Turner Shoals dam at Lake Adger needs $2.6 million of repairs. On-going maintenance of the dam is also a priority. Under the new agreement ICWD would take responsibility for funding and completing these tasks. 2. How will Lake Adger be affected? Lake Adger is not permitted for water treatment or a withdrawal intake, so water cannot be withdrawn from it for the Polk County-ICWD water system use now. Also, there are no plans to build a water treatment plant or water withdrawal intake for a treatment plant on Lake Adger. This water system agreement also will not change current agreements with Lake Adger homeowners’ associations or those with the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission that affect recreational use of Lake Adger. Lake Adger will benefit by ICWD’s funding and managing improvements to the Turner Shoals Dam. Also, ICWD will fund and manage on-going maintenance of the dam and help the county address silt issues. 3. The County and ICWD say the lake levels will not be affected, why not? ICWD already has adequate supplies of water to meet the combined Polk County-ICWD projected water needs for at least the next 50 years. The primary water supplies are located outside of Polk County and don’t include Lake Adger. The Broad River Water Authority supplies 3.5 million gallons a day to ICWD. It is the primary water supplier to ICWD and it wants to continue this agreement. ICWD has a withdrawal permit for eight million gallons a day from the North Pacolet River in South Carolina. ICWD plans to build a water intake here by early 2018. Also, Polk County has a water supply of 0.6 million gallons a day from the Broad River Water Authority that is available to the water system. If more water is needed far into the future, ICWD and Polk County consider Lake Adger the least cost- effective and feasible option it has for a water withdrawal intake or treatment plant, due to its distance from the water distribution mains in the county. Also, the Lake Adger watershed has a water supply classification based on 2 million gallons a day. Yet the average daily flow of water going through the Turner Shoals dam is more than 80 times that volume, at 166 million gallons a day. Again, while it wouldn’t be used until decades from now, a withdrawal of even more than 2 million gallons a day from the high water volume going through the Turner Shoals dam would not be near enough to have any affect on lake levels. 4. Does the agreement mean Polk County will sell the right to use Lake Adger water supplies in a treatment plant that ICWD may build, even if the agreement is ended? Why? No. The intent of the agreement is to benefit the entire Polk County-ICWD water system by building one water treatment plant in the region if it is needed, not two plants. A future water treatment plant would use water from the North Pacolet River first because ICWD has an existing 8 million gallon a day withdrawal permit. This, combined with water supplied by the Broad River Water Authority, would be more than enough to meet the water needs projected for the region well beyond 50 years from now. 5. How can this agreement help resolve the silt problem at Lake Adger? Under the agreement, ICWD will take responsibility for funding the repairs to Turner Shoals dam. This is more than $2 million that the County will not have to allocate from its general fund. Some members of the Polk County Board of Commissioners have expressed interest in using some of the savings to help resolve the silt problem at Lake Adger. 6. Will there be a water treatment plant on Lake Adger in the future? There will be no plan that would withdraw water from Lake Adger for treatment at a plant on Lake Adger. Between its current agreement with the Broad River Water District and its permit to treat eight million gallons of water a day from the North Pacolet River, ICWD has the capacity it needs to adequately meet the projected water needs for the Polk-ICWD combined water system for the next 50 years. If a water treatment plant is needed in the future, building it near the primary water source is most cost effective and technically feasible. The primary future water source for ICWD and Polk County is not Lake Adger. It’s the North Pacolet River. The most effective option would be to expand the water capacity agreement ICWD and Polk County have with Broad River Water Authority and combine that with a treatment plant that is supplied by the North Pacolet River. If the region’s water demands grow beyond this capacity sometime after 50 years, permitting an intake on the Green River would be more cost effective than a Lake Adger intake. FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT: Marche Pittman, Interim Polk County Manager 828-894-3301 and Jeff Walker, General Manager, Inman-Campobello Water District, 828-863-2295 Thank You to everyone who attended last nights "working session" (about 60 people?) AND to the 20 people who spoke respectfully and eloquently at the end of the mtg. The comments were unanimous in their urging the commissioners to study and assess the impacts before approving this document. The quality of the comments was exceptional. Any reasonable commission would take them seriously.
The Water Contract Workshop was not really a workshop, but instead Tom Pack/Ted Owens had Jana Berg (the Commissioner attorney) read the ENTIRE contract out loud with multiple breaks for people to take the opportunity to leave - very few did and it went on past 11:00. Most of the meaningful changes made by the expert water attorney Polk County hired were removed by the Inman-Campobello attorney. During the citizens comment period people (many of them local lawyers and engineers) wanted to know WHY the majority commissioners are in such a hurry, WHY we are not considering all options (building our own water system, working with Tryon who has an over capacity of water production available, WHY we have not done an economic impact analysis on this agreement, WHY there are no (gallons per day) water withdrawal limits in the agreement, WHY Polk does not get percentage of wholesale water sales that ICWD will be able to make to outside parties, and on and on. NOTICE OF POLK COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS’ WORK SESSION The Board of Commissioners will hold a work session on October 27, 2014, at 8:00 P.M. in the R. Jay Foster Hall of Justice, Womack Building, Columbus, NC. The work session regards the proposed draft agreement between Polk County Government and Inman Campobello Water District, and is open to the public. Citizen comments on the proposed draft agreement will be taken prior to adjournment. Those unable to attend the work session may submit their comments electronically to the Clerk to the Board at [email protected], or deliver them directly to the County Manager’s office. "Citizens will not be allowed to speak at the beginning of the meeting – only at the end – but written comments may be submitted before the meeting." I urge as many citizens as can to share the attached information with their friends and neighbors and educate themselves on the issues. Please write to the Board of Commissioners through the Clerk of the Court (email in the attachment) Please attend the work session on Monday night. **Attached is the draft agreement that they are currently working with that would allow Inman-Campobello Water District to draw water from Lake Adger (raw water source in the agreement) for 40 years (regardless of whether the agreement is terminated or not) and allows use of Eminent Domain to be used for construction of Water lines, water treatment plant etc. There is a lot of good stuff in this agreement as well but we should all be informed before this is entered into (it will certainly affect our future in this area)! ![]()
Commissioners hear water contract concerns
Tryon Daily Bulletin Published 10:00pm Thursday, October 9, 2014 At the Oct. 6 Board of Commissioners meeting, 14 citizens voiced their concerns and questions about the draft Agreement for Water System Services By and Between Inman-Campobello Water District, S.C. and Polk County, N.C. The county and ICWD are in the beginning stages of drafting a 20-year contract that would essentially create a water system to be built, maintained and managed by ICWD, using ICWD’s resources on the Broad River, North Pacolet River, and in the future, Lake Adger. According to the draft, oversight of the partnership would be provided by a Joint Coordinating Committee, to be made up of three Polk County member representatives and two ICWD representatives. The county received notice Sept. 2 from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources that Lake Adger was reclassified to Watershed –IV status, a necessary first step in the county’s plans to be able to draw water from the lake. During the citizen comment period, Sky Conner said that Lake Adger residents were not asked for their input on the purchase of Turner Shoals Dam or the decision to reclassify the lake to Watershed-IV status. She also cited an environmental impact statement regarding the William States Lee nuclear power plant near Gaffney, S.C., which will require 282,000,000 gallons of water per day. The statement, she said, includes Lake Adger as a water source on their water supply map. Scott Clune, secretary of the property owners association of Lake Adger, said that landowners have a “fair amount of concern” over the proposed agreement. “This [agreement] appears to allow ICWD to significantly expand the sale of water to industrial customers in South Carolina. While this may be good for ICWD and South Carolina, is it good for Polk County and for Lake Adger?” asked Clune. Clune also asked if there will be a maximum limit of withdrawals, whether withdrawals fluctuate, who will control the amount of withdrawals, what is the environmental impact of the withdrawals, and, what will happen if there is a drought. George Baker and Tommy Melton asked the commissioners to hold off voting on an agreement until after the election. Melton expressed concern that the contract puts out-of state customers ahead of Polk County’s current and future needs. Mary Baker, Pat Salomon, Ed Krause and Renee McDermott expressed concern over the contract’s termination clause that states that ICWD will retain the right to remove water from Lake Adger even after the end of the 20-year contract. Salomon, McDermott and Susan Johan added their concern that the contract allows for the use of eminent domain to support ICWD in the expansion of water lines. McDermott also referenced the clause that required Polk County to pay ICWD back for the water lines if the contract is terminated. She also said that Polk County should retain the expertise of a water utility expert in the drafting process. Marilyn McCredie and Susan Johann referenced the hotels to be built at the Tryon International Equestrian Resort over the next few years, and asked how their water usage would impact the lake. Before hearing a presentation from ICWD General Manager Jeff Walker, Interim County Manager Marche Pittman stated that he and Walker will take the citizens’ comments under consideration as the contract’s drafting process goes forward. “This is a draft contract. We got some really good citizen comments and we’ll take all those into consideration, and we’ll try to work through them. This is a process. This is not a final document by any means,” said Pittman. Walker spoke at length about the specifics of the draft contract, addressing many of the points raised by citizens. Walker stated that he expected the equestrian resort to use 235,000 gallons per day when it is fully developed. Walker also said that from ICWD’s perspective, Lake Adger ranked fourth in its water supply hierarchy, citing the fact that there is no permit in place for an intake system, and the fact that the lake is 15 miles from the nearest possible connection to an existing water line. “Lake Adger,” he said, “is the least feasible and cost-effective option.” Regarding citizens’ concerns about fluctuating water levels, Walker said that there are studies that show that “even if you withdrew two million gallons a day … you would never see the lake level drop, or even if you withdrew larger amounts.” Commissioners and Walker discussed the makeup of the Joint Coordinating Committee, of which the majority of its five members would be from Polk County. Commissioners Pack and Owens asked that two citizen appointees be designated as representatives rather than sitting county commissioners as the draft currently calls for. Regarding the termination of the contract, Walker said that Polk County would retain their water assets, but, the county would be obligated to repay ICWD for its investment in water lines and the Lake Adger dam, less depreciation. Commissioner Pack asked Walker to provide depreciation schedules for water lines, machinery, pump stations, the dam, and other assets. Commissioner Pack asked Walker whether Lake Adger water could be sold outside the county or water district, a concern that several citizens cited. Walker responded, “In Inman-Campobello’s sense, we’ve made our water source available to this county, and in a way it will always be available to the county, and vice versa. But only the county, and only Inman-Campobello, even during the contract, without both parties agreeing to do something else [with the water].” In a hypothetical scenario, Walker said that if another water system asked to purchase water from ICWD, both parties would have to agree to it in order for it to happen. Pack asked that this be clearly outlined in the contract. Commissioner Gasperson asked that the board not rush the process through, and take a period of due diligence. He also asked that the county retain legal counsel to review the draft and assist the process as it moves forward. - See more at: http://www.tryondailybulletin.com/2014/10/09/commissioners-hear-water-contract-concerns/#sthash.0fAoyFqP.dpuf |
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