Revision of the Jordan Lake Rules
I've been writing for a while now about the Jordan Lake Rules, designed to clean up the water supply and recreation for the Triangle.
This affects the Triad and Greensboro because Jordan Lake is fed by the Haw River, which winds through Guilford County.
Environmentalists and state regulators say the rules are needed to clean up the lake. Local officials say they would be very costly for cities to put into action and not achieve very much.
The latest version of those rules rolled out to the House Environment Committee today:
RALEIGH — The latest draft of rules designed to clean up pollution running from Greensboro and other Triad cities into Jordan Lake pleases neither environmental advocates nor those representing builders and municipal officials.The product of closed-door work sessions, the latest plan was handed to members of the House Environment Committee on Tuesday.
“It’s never what anybody wants,” said Rep. Pryor Gibson, a Wadesboro Democrat, said of legislative compromises on environmental bills.
Jordan Lake is principally a water supply and recreation area for the Triangle. But it is fed by the Haw River, which winds its way through Guilford and Alamance counties.
For a decade, environmental regulators have tried to establish rules that would curb the amount of nitrogen and phosphorus running into the lake. Although those nutrients are helpful as fertilizers for lawns and crops, in an over-abundance they can lead to harmful algae growth in waterways.
The final draft of those rules as written by regulators was approved late last year, but opponents have appealed the plan to the General Assembly. Legislators have undertaken what amounts to a rewrite of the plan.
Click here for the whole story.
Click here for the text of the bill and other legislative information.
Click here for a bill explanation that was handed out to the committee. This handout gets down into the nitty-gritty of the changes.
Click here for a chart showing Chlorophyll-a levels in different parts of Jordan Lake. Chlorophyll-a is a key indicator of something going amiss. (This chart came from Environment North Carolina.)
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