By Vicky Dickson
Staff Writer
“The only thing you haven’t done is cut it and float the logs down Cane Creek,†said Patrick Mulkey to the Orange Water and Sewage Authority’s board of directors at the board’s Dec. 9 meeting. In response to concerns like that, the board has extended the public-comment period for the utility’s draft forestry-management plan for 1,900 acres in Orange and Chatham counties. It also promised that staff will prepare a detailed report addressing all of the comments that are received and make it available in early 2011.
OWASA owns more than 3,700 acres of land, mostly forest that was purchased to protect the water supply. It has been working with the N.C. Division of Forest Resources, the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission, the Duke Forest manager and True North Forest Management Services on a management plan for the forest. But when the plan was presented at a public forum at Maple View Agricultural Center on Nov. 30, county residents expressed strong opposition, citing concerns about the use of herbicides, the effects of clear cuts on wildlife, the disruption caused by forestry operations and the effects of the plan on drinking water. Several residents also protested that they had not been informed about the plan or the meeting and called for more time to provide feedback.
At the Dec. 9 meeting, chair Gordon Merklein pointed out that the board “very much appreciates the interest in and feedback about the draft plan.†He also stated that the Chapel Hill Town Council, the Orange County Board of Commissioners and the Carrboro Board of Aldermen have requested OWASA not to act on the forestry-management plan at this time.
At the public hearing that followed Merklein’s remarks, Myra Dotson and Michael Hughes spoke in addition to Mulkey. Dotson, speaking on behalf of the Sewage Sludge Action Network, told of living just across the road from the sludge fields off Orange Grove Road. She expressed her concern that timbered areas would be used for spreading sludge. Hughes, with the Clean Water Coalition, said the biggest issue with the plan is that it’s a traditional logging plan, one in which “quality refers to marketability†rather than diversity and sustainability.
“We believe OWASA must drop the plan and start from scratch with a new one,†Hughes said.
The draft forest-management plan is available online at owasa.org/whatwedo/ForestManagementPlan.aspx