Jordan Lake

Jordan Lake, located in the Cape Fear River Basin, is the water supply source for western Wake County residents, serving the communities of Cary, Apex and Morrisville, as well as the Research Triangle Park. Like Wake County, Chatham, Durham, and Harnett Counties, which lie within the Cape Fear River Basin, are also experiencing dramatic growth. Chatham County, in which most of Jordan Lake situated, is the second-fastest growing county in the state. Population and economic growth in the Jordan Lake watershed further threaten the ability of the lake to support its designated uses as a regional drinking water supply, recreational resource, and aquatic habitat due to increases in nutrient loads that result from that growth. Jordan Lake was added to the federal list of "impaired waters" in 2002, due to high levels of chlorophyll a and high alkalinity. This designation under the Clean Water Act requires the state Division of Water Quality to prepare a plan to restore the lake's health by reducing pollution from contributing sources. Thus the state began the process of developing the Jordan Lake rules, involving stakeholders in more than 30 meetings over three years to consider their concerns. After repeated delays, the Environmental Review Commission approved the rules in May 2008, and the Rules Review Commission (RRC) passed them in November of the same year. Click here to see the rules adopted by the RRC. When the Jordan Lake rules reached the General Assembly for approval in 2009, several bills were introduced to overturn them, largely out of concern for the cost to upstream municipalities of enacting some of the provisions. After months of negotiation, upstream and downstream cities, state agencies, and environmental advocates reached a compromise on changes to the rules. The revisions would give wastewater plants until 2016 to upgrade and reduce their nitrogen discharges, and would delay the start of retrofits until 2014 in the New Hope arms of the lake, and 2017 in the Haw, where local governments believe they can achieve the required pollution reductions through extra controls on wastewater treatment plants. The compromise bill (HB 239) passed in the House and Senate and was signed into law by Governor Perdue at the end of June 2009. Initially, WakeUP Wake County advocated for implementation of the original Jordan Lake rules, as did the Towns of Cary and Apex, and Chatham County. Ultimately, WakeUP did support the compromise rules agreed to by the stakeholders, which provided greater clarity about the retrofit obligations of local government for controlling polluted runoff from existing development. For more details about the Jordan Lake Rules, see the North Carolina Conservation Network or Clean Jordan Lake.