Falls Lake

Here's what you can do now to be engaged in the current Falls Lake rule-making process:

 
    • Consider a contribution of $10 today for WakeUP's public education campaign on Falls Lake.  We need your support from the community so that we can represent YOU.  Thank you for your support!  Please click here to donate.
    • Learn more about Falls Lake:
      		 

      		 
      Falls Lake Community Forum: Is Your Drinking Water in Danger?
      (Event Presentations)

      State of Falls Lake
      Dr. JoAnn Burkholder, Director of the Center for Applied Aquatic Ecology, NC State University

      Impact of Development and Stormwater Runoff
      Kimberly Brewer, A.I.C.P., Associate Director, Tetra Tech

      Solutions to Polluted Runoff:        Low Impact Development
      Kathy DeBusk, Extension Engineer, NC State University

      Costs of Lake Pollution
      Kenneth Waldroup, Assistant Public Utilities Director, City of Raleigh Public Utilities Department

      Falls Lake Rulemaking Process: What’s at Stake
      Elizabeth Ouzts, State Director, Environment NC


      More about Falls Lake:
      Falls Lake, located in the Neuse River Basin, provides the drinking water for Raleigh and six other municipalities in eastern Wake County: Garner, Knightdale, Rolesville, Wake Forest, Wendell and Zebulon. The Neuse River Basin is one of the fastest growing river basins in the country. Increasing demands for drinking water from both Falls Lake and the Neuse River could have detrimental economic and environmental consequences if sustainable policies are not proactively enacted.

      Falls Lake has been declared "impaired" (i.e., polluted) by the State, due to polluted runoff and wastewater discharged upstream. Findings by the NC Division of Water Quality (DWQ) in 2009 indicated the lake is more polluted than previously thought, as high levels of pollution and an overabundance of nutrients have resulted in toxic algal blooms and chemical conditions in the lake. The western portion of Falls Lake, located in Durham County, is particularly bad off, with the majority of water samples there exceeding chlorophyll a levels allowed by federal clean water standards. Click here to see a map of the lake depicting areas where water samples exceeded the federal standard for chlorophyll a. (High levels of chlorophyll a lead to reduced light penetration and low oxygen levels, both of which negatively impact water quality).  For more details about the conditions and factors contributing to the Falls Lake water quality problem, view the slides and notes from WakeUP Executive Director Karen Rindge's presentation to local health advocates in September 2009.

      Without improvements to current wastewater treatment and stormwater practices, Falls Lake will remain impaired. The NC DWQ was supposed to develop a nutrient management strategy and set rules to clean up Falls Lake by July 2009, but now has asked for a two-and-a-half year extension. In the meantime, projected growth and development in the watershed mean the conditions in Falls Lake are going to go from bad to worse.

      WakeUP Wake County is working with city and state officials, advocating for more immediate action by DWQ. We also are working with members of the General Assembly to create incentives for municipalities and developers to improve stormwater management and protections for the Lake in the interim, while the rules are being developed. This could entail enacting the recently passed Jordan Lake rules (see Read more about Jordan Lake) in the Falls Lake watershed.

      Advocates of Falls Lake scored a significant victory at the end of the 2009 legislative session when S1020, Improve Upper Neuse Basin Water Quality, passed the General Assembly and was then signed into law by Governor Purdue on August 26, 2009.  The bill extends to January 2011 the deadline for Fall Lake rules to be developed, but stipulates that temporary rules apply starting January 2011, during the period of legislative review.  In addition, the bill includes new measures to help control runoff from development that is filling up Falls Lake and its streams with mud and pollutants, and incentives to encourage faster action by developers and municipalities.

       Coverage of Falls Lake in local media outlets is helping to raise public awareness: