Durham's drinking water supply at risk on two fronts
A proposed 600+ acre natural gas facility in southern Person County could impact Durham's drinking water supply, which has already been compromised more broadly by contaminants from Jordan Lake.
This BCPI article is written by Brian Callaway with map contributions from Chris Fedor.
For decades, most of Durham’s drinking water has been supplied from two reservoirs in northern Durham County: Lake Michie (pronounced like “Mickey,” the famous cartoon rodent) and Little River Reservoir. While the southern ends of both Durham and the Triangle as a whole have absorbed most of the region’s growth over the last two decades, the watersheds collecting rainfall within the Flat River, which feeds Lake Michie, and the Little River, which unsurprisingly supplies Little River Reservoir, have remained primarily rural with minimal impacts from suburban or industrial development. A 601-acre project proposed by Dominion Energy, the natural gas utility, could change that.
Proposed Natural Gas Processing and Storage Plant
Dominion Energy is presenting a proposed liquefied natural gas storage facility that would be sited on a conglomeration of six existing parcels at the headwaters of a tributary of the Flat River. A large existing natural gas supply line bisects the proposed site.
According to Dominion Energy, the facility will supercool natural gas to -260 degrees Fahrenheit, triggering a phase change to liquefied natural gas (LNG), which takes up 600 times less volume than the gaseous version and can be more readily stored. The conversion to LNG will primarily take place during warmer months when gas demand is lower. During months of higher demand, the LNG will be warmed and returned to the main supply line.
The US Department of Transportation reported 173 LNG facilities active across the country in 2022. Following the natural gas boom in the US prompted by hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, numerous large-scale LNG plants have been constructed and planned at ports, which will allow large-scale export of domestic natural gas supplies.
According to Persida Montanez, a spokesperson for the Dominion Energy project, the Person County facility would not be utilized for any export or transport activities—the LNG will only be converted back to a gas and reinjected into supply lines, as market conditions dictate, to “solely support service reliability for Dominion Energy’s natural gas customers in the region.”
Although industrial activity or pollution at the site would most likely be limited to impacts during the construction phase, increased stormwater impacts and sediment pollution (as have occurred in Southeast Durham) could be possible due to the expanse of the project and its presence at headwaters of more sensitive feeder creeks to the Flat River. The City of Durham Stormwater Division had scored the Flat River at 92 out of 100 in their 2010 State of the Streams report, giving the waterway an “A” rating at its last analysis that included the river.
Public Meetings about LNG Facility
On Wednesday November 1 from 6pm to 8pm, Dominion Energy is hosting an open house at County Auditorium at 304 South Morgan Street in Roxboro so residents can learn more about the project.
The Person County Planning Board is scheduled to hear the development proposal on Thursday November 9, and the Person County Board of County Commissioners is anticipated to discuss and vote on the development at their December 4 meeting.
Lake Michie and Little River Reservoirs Overstretched
Lake Michie was constructed in 1926, and Little River Reservoir was constructed in 1988. For decades these two facilities typically met the City’s daily demand with a combined supply rating of up to 27.9 million gallons per day (MGD) of drinking water supply. According to the Durham Water Management 2022 Water Quality Report, the City surpassed its traditional supply and used 29 MGD of water in 2022.
So how did the City find over 1 MGD to supply its overstretched needs in 2022?
Communities throughout the Triangle have developed interlocal agreements that have provided interconnectivity between municipal water supplies, which has benefited municipalities during droughts and other emergency backup events as well as facilitating the ability to make ongoing water exchanges.
The 2022 Water Quality Report suggests that Durham covered its daily gap of over 1 million gallons of water by importing the difference from the Town of Cary, which uses Jordan Lake as their primary water supply.
Technically, the Towns of Cary and Apex jointly own a water intake and treatment facility on the eastern shore of Jordan Lake, and the facility is operated by the Town of Cary Public Works department. The Town of Morrisville receives all of its water from the Town of Cary. Notwithstanding any interlocal exchanges, all three towns receive all of their municipal water from Jordan Lake.
State statutes give the North Carolina Environmental Management Commission the power to oversee the drinking water allocations of Jordan Lake, and in 2017 the Commission authorized an updated allocation plan that gives Cary/Apex/Morrisville 46.2 MGD, up from their previous allocation of 39 MGD, and also gives the City of Durham a 16.5 MGD allocation, up from 10 MGD previously. Other communities with increased allocations include Pittsboro, Chatham County-North, Hillsborough and Orange County.
The Western Intake Partnership was started in 2014 and is comprised of several communities, including Durham, who are working together to construct a new supply intake and treatment center on the western shore of Jordan Lake—but Durham water drinkers should know that augmenting supply from Jordan Lake, in the future and also with today’s gap supply from the Town of Cary, exposes Durhamites to new risks.
Contamination by “Forever Chemicals”
In 2017 when GenX-related perfluorinated compounds were detected in Jordan Lake, Durham was still covering its daily water needs from the output of our two northern reservoirs. A 2020 report from the NC Department of Environmental Quality elaborated further to state that further water test results “demonstrate the widespread distribution of detectable PFAS in Jordan Lake.” PFAS are a class of synthetic chemicals known as “forever chemicals” because of the way they persist in environmental systems and are believed to accumulate in the human body and cause harm.
The Haw River has been documented as a major pollutant to Jordan Lake, especially from industry located upriver in Burlington and the Town of Haw River. In addition, Jordan Lake collects the treated wastewater effluent from Burlington, Graham, Chapel Hill/Carrboro, and Durham, among several other smaller communities.
In addition to Jordan Lake, a fourth emergency water supply for the City of Durham has been identified as Teer Quarry, an abandoned rock quarry that the City purchased in 2007 and is located just northeast of the new Northern High School. The 1.5 billion gallons of water storage in Teer Quarry could provide about 50 days of emergency supply at the City’s current usage rate, but there are concerns about contaminated groundwater potentially reaching that storage site.
Not All Doom and Gloom
Even though it is Halloween Eve, this isn’t completely a horror story. Recently, Haw River advocates and the City of Burlington have worked together to reach a settlement on how the City will begin to restrict and better regulate industry which has been polluting chemicals that have made it downriver and into the drinking water supply of hundreds of thousands of people in the Triangle.
And there are numerous home filter system technologies that you can install to reduce your intake of “forever chemicals” from our drinking water supply, although Duke University and NC State did find that not all options are equal.
Perhaps the best way to end this story is to share one of the best kept secrets in Durham: Lake Michie has an excellent canoe and kayak rental program run by Durham Parks and Rec. And this weekend is the last weekend of the season that the park is open for visitors in case you wanted to check out some fall colors and see one of the sources of what comes out of your tap. (Little River Reservoir is open for free bank fishing this weekend, but the boat house is closed for renovations, so you’ll have to get back on the water there in the spring time.)