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Policy on protection water supplyPolicy Position on Protection of Water Supply Reservoirs by the Executive Board of the North Central Texas Council of Governments Sponsored by the cities of Arlington, Dallas, Denton and Fort Worth, the North Texas Municipal Water District, the Tarrant County Water Control and Improvement District #1, and the Trinity River Authority. "National survival, in terms of future urban, industrial, and commercial growth and prosperity, dictates the protection of all water resources from any acts, such as the discharging of harmful substances, which cause unreasonable impairment of water quality and adversely affect their highest levels of usefulness." — Excerpted from Policy Statement of the Water Pollution Control Federation. This statement is particularly true for North Central Texas. Clean water is of vital importance, but growth in the region threatens to pollute water supply reservoirs which currently yield good quality raw water for municipal use. The most evident water quality problems in North Central Texas reservoirs, resulting from organic and nutrient loadings, are algal blooms and periodic taste and odor incidents. While this does not at present pose a public health threat, it does impair the acceptability and fullest enjoyment of municipal water supplies. As urban development in the watersheds of these reservoirs increases, pollution will worsen unless action is taken now to correct existing problems and prevent future ones. Seven of the major water supply agencies in the region collectively examined these concerns through the North Central Texas Council of Governments for more than a year in 1985 -86. The cities of Arlington, Dallas, Denton and Fort Worth, the North Texas Municipal Water District, the Tarrant County Water Control i and Improvement District #1 and the Trinity River Authority have worked through NCTCOG to form the Reservoir Watershed Management Program. The Program's Steering Committee has determined that cooperative actions to implement long -term reservoir watershed management planning are imperative now to avoid serious pollution of our water supplies by the year 2000. Therefore, the Steering Committee has developed a set of policies to guide future local actions. These policies were endorsed by the NCTCOG Water Resources Council and adopted by the NCTCOG Executive Board in January 1986. They were adopted by the seven participating agencies during the year, and since then have also been adopted by more than 50 cities and counties. The water supply agencies and NCTCOG continue to work toward the goals outlined in the Policy Position, and reaffirm their importance to orderly development in the best interest of local governments throughout the region. To implement the program, Annual Action Plans are prepared by the participating agencies and NCTCOG. A 1987 -88 progress report has been published which summarizes the many activities accomplished during the past year's Action Plan. This Policy Position has been adopted by: Angus Farmers Branch Kemp Plano White Settlement Arlington Forest Hill Kennedale Princeton Azle Fort Worth Lewisville Prosper Navarro County Cedar Hill Frisco Little Elm Rowlett Wise County Coppell Grapevine Lucas Royse City Corsicana Greenville Mebank Runaway Bay North Texas Municipal Water District Cross Roads Hackberry Mansfield Shady Shores Tarrant County Water Control and Crowley Hickory Creek Maypearl Southlake Improvement District #1 Dallas Hudson Oaks Melissa University Park Trinity River Authority Denton Irving Murphy Waxahachie Ennis Keene Newark West Tawakoni — As of October 1988 The North Central Texas Council of Governments is a voluntary association of the cities, counties and special districts in the 16- county North Central Texas region. For more information, call (817) 640 -3300. The North Central Texas Council of Governments is pledged to the protection of the region's drinking water supply reservoirs to ensure that water quality does not deteriorate as development occurs, and to attempt to improve the water quality to the point of fullest public enjoyment of this crucial resource — clean water. To this end, we adopt this Policy Position on Protection of Water SUPPly Reservoirs: Reservoir water quality must be protected. Citizens must be convinced of the vital need, and local governments empowered, to protect lake water quality. 9 Prevention of water pollution must be emphasized, since Prevention is much more cost - effective than pollution correction PREVENTION or water treatment. Regional agencies should be designated by the state to manage wastewater treatment in reservoir watersheds. Alternative wastewater treatment processes providing for the conservation and reclamation of water should be considered. Wastewater treatment levels must be sufficiently stringent to j protect lake quality, including nutrient and toxic controls where necessary. �t4.4 Interjurisdictional watershed management plans should be prepared. Illegal dumping and unpermitted landfill operations must be stopped. 44ftComprehensive stormwater management programs that include control of significant nonpoint sources of pollution should be developed by cities and counties in reservoir watersheds. Septic tanks should be used only in rural areas under strict local government regulation. A coordinated monitoring, analysis and reporting system should be implemented for all reservoirs and their watersheds. These policies are discussed in greater detail on the following pages. Reservoir water quality must be protected. Water quality in water supply reservoirs of North Central Texas generally meets state standards, but rapid growth in many reservoir watersheds threatens to pollute and thus degrade the water supply. Clean water is vital not only to the existing four million residents of the region, but also to the very development that may cause water quality to deteriorate. Some pollution problems have always been evident, the most pervasive being nutrients resulting in algal blooms. This causes periodic taste and odor problems that impair the acceptability of treated water to consumers. While not a public health hazard, this problem will worsen and more serious ones may occur as growth continues unless measures to avert reservoir pollution are implemented now. This would allow development to progress in an orderly manner, without damaging our most vital resource. The goal is not only to maintain current water quality, but also to improve it. Citizens must be convinced of the vital need, and local governments empowered, to protect lake water quality. There is a growing awareness of water quality problems in North Central Texas. This awareness needs to be translated into public support for the protection of water supplies. Cooperative watershed management planning can keep clean water available to all citizens of North Central Texas into the next century, but will occur only if the necessity is perceived. Local governments must take the lead in making the public aware of the issue. Where necessary, state legislation should be strengthened to empower local governments to implement effective water quality protection programs. All citizens of the region must demand clean water. Prevention of water pollution must be emphasized, G °QQ b1 since prevention is much more cost - effective than pollution correction or water treatment. PREVENTION There are three key elements in producing safe drinking water from reservoir watershed systems: pollution prevention, pollution correction, and water treatment. Prevention of pollution before it reaches the reservoir is much more cost - effective than either corrective measures to mitigate pollution sources after they impact on the reservoirs, or treatment of the water to remove pollutants before it is distributed in municipal supply systems. Pollution prevention must be emphasized. Not only are treatment costs far higher for water of poor quality, but there may be some pollutants that cannot be readily removed. Serious pollution of water supplies can be avoided in North Central Texas by prevention nbw. Regional agencies should be designated by the state to manage wastewater treatment in reservoir watersheds. In the early 1970's the Upper Trinity River Basin Comprehensive Sewerage Plan was completed by NCTCOG and local governments. It called for the phasing out of many small wastewater treatment plants in favor of treatment by joint treatment plants. This plan, now largely implemented, did not address much area beyond Dallas and Tarrant Counties. Development over the past 15 years in the watersheds of several water supply reservoirs has been much more rapid than anticipated. A proliferation of small, privately owned wastewater treatment plants is once again occurring. Many similar plants are inadequately maintained and operated. While poor quality discharge from any one plant has little impact on a reservoir, their cumulative effect may become disastrous if the current growth pattern continues. To avoid this, all plants should be managed by state - designated regional agencies, such as cities or special districts. Small plants operated by the regional agency or other local governments may be necessary initially in some areas. These could be tied in with larger joint treatment plants when continued growth makes it cost effective. Alternative wastewater treatment processes providing for the conservation and reclamation of water should be considered. Alternative wastewater treatment processes and techniques are proven methods which provide for the conservation and reclamation of water. Alternative processes can productively recycle wastewater or otherwise eliminate the discharge of pollutants, particularly nutrients. Examples include land treatment, aquifer recharge, aquaculture, silviculture, irrigation, direct reuse for industrial and other nonpotable purposes, horticulture and revegetation of disturbed land. Planned indirect reuse of high quality effluent can even increase water supply without detrimental effects if properly monitored and controlled. Such methods of reusing wastewater can result in the conversion of pollutants to beneficial resources. Therefore, beneficial reuse should be considered during the planning phase for wastewater treatment plants, especially for those immediately upstream of water supply reservoirs, to determine if nutrient loading to lakes can be minimized while utilizing the wastewater wisely. Participation by the Texas Water Commission on a regional basis in such studies would be beneficial. Wastewater treatment levels must be sufficiently stringent to protect lake quality, including nutrient and toxic controls where necessary. Wherever wastewater is discharged into the waters of North Central Texas, it must be controlled in a rational manner. Wastewater treatment plants discharging within five miles of a water supply reservoir in the state of Texas already must meet more stringent treatment levels for some parameters than plants located farther away. State requirements have become increasingly strict, and will probably continue to be so. One example is that a new plant discharging to a major area reservoir is being required to implement stringent nutrient controls for the first time anywhere in the region. Each lake needs to be examined in detail, and wastewater treatment levels must be set accordingly. The state should rigorously enforce existing requirements for all wastewater treatment plants. Interjurisdictional watershed management plans should be prepared. Everyone favors clean water. To ensure that we continue to have it in North Central Texas, long - range watershed management plans must be initiated now. Reservoir watersheds in the region are typically large, hundreds of square miles in area, and encompass numerous cities, counties and special districts. Long range planning requires the participation and cooperation of all jurisaictions in a watershed. This is made difficult because of the piecemeal nature of the planning authority. All local governments in each reservoir watershed should cooperatively develop and adopt a watershed management plan that would ensure that growih occurs with as little adverse impact as possible on water supplies. In. ` Illegal dumping and unpermitted landfill operations must be stopped. Garbage piled around lakeshores and in streambeds is a common sight in North Central Texas. Illegally dumped trash and, on a larger scale, unpermitted landfills, contribute to reservoir pollution as rainfall both carries the material directly to the lake, and dissolves undesirable materials from the garbage. This problem, which will get worse as more people are added to the region, must be controlled. Greater public awareness of the danger such dumping poses to water supplies may help. Certainly all cities and counties should enforce to the limit of their authority existing laws against such activity. Local offices of appropriate state agencies, such as the Texas Water Commission, should be able to take immediate enforcement action against violators. Comprehensive stormwater management programs that include control of significant nonpoint sources of pollution should be developed by cities and counties in reservoir watersheds. All Texas cities with a population over 5,000 are required to develop, and others may develop, a pollution control and abatement program pursuant to Section 21.357 of the Texas Water Quality Act. The Act suggests "the development and execution of reasonable and realistic plans for controlling and abating pollution or potential pollution resulting from generalized discharges of waste which are not traceable to a specific source, such as storm sewer discharges and urban runoff from rainwater" Such pollution, referred to as nonpoint source pollution because of its diffuse nature, frequently has as great or greater impact on water quality than discharges from specific sources such as wastewater treatment plants. While both rural and urban runoff are important, urban runoff generally carries a greater load of nutrients and toxic pollutants. Thus the rapid urbanization of reservoir watersheds portends problems unless preventive control measures are implemented. These can also help reduce creek flooding and provide more open space opportunities. Therefore, all cities and counties should incorporate nonpoint source considerations into their overall stormwater management programs. Q��t�Septic tanks should be used only in rural areas under strict local government regulation. Septic tanks were designed to allow homes to be built in rural areas isolated from community wastewater collection systems. When properly constructed and maintained, septic tanks should pose little threat to reservoir quality. However, development of subdivisions utilizing septic tanks is now occurring in the reservoir watersheds, often adjacent to lakes. Problems result when septic tanks are constructed on lots too small for their adequate functioning, on soil types unsuitable for septic tanks, or they are inadequately maintained. The large numbers of septic tanks concentrated in some areas can have considerable impact on public health and water quality. Strict controls on the use and maintenance of septic tanks need to be implemented. Cities and counties should have and rigorously enforce septic tank regulations. These regulations should specify standards of construction and maintenance, and not allow septic tank use where it is feasible to use a community collection system and wastewater treatment plant. r I A coordinated monitoring, analysis and reporting 1 system should be implemented for all reservoirs and = their watersheds. In order to detect either improvement or deterioration of reservoirs, we need to document trends in water quality. This requires monitoring of appropriate parameters and locations, sampling each lake frequently enough to give adequate data for statistical trend analyses. We also need to look at cause and effect relationships by monitoring potential sources of pollution in each watershed. Technical staff and equipment capable of performing the analyses are necessary. It is particularly important to report the data in a form readily understandable by managers, planners and elected officials who make decisions affecting the future of the water supplies. Some reservoirs in the region now have detailed monitoring programs, but others do not. A coordinated, comprehensive system should be implemented for all reservoirs and their watersheds. NCTCOG Executive Board 1988 -89 Officers Everett B. Gladding, President Mayor Pro Tem, City of Greenville Bert Williams, Vice President Mayor Pro Tem, City of Fort Worth Marti VanRavenswaay, Secretary - Treasurer Councilmember, Arlington Joe Regian, Past President Directors John Evans Mayor Pro Tem, City of Dallas Ed Galligan Councilmember, City of Grand Prairie Lee Jackson County Judge, Dallas County Margie Waldrop Mayor Pro Tem, Lancaster Bill Lofland County Judge, Rockwall County Regional Citizen Representatives John Stevenson Tarrant County Stan Lambert Ellis County Jerry C. Gilmore General Counsel William J. Pitstick Executive Director Reservoir Watershed Management Program Steering Committee Diana Clark, Chairman League of Women voters of Texas Larry McDaniel Dallas Water Utilities Carl W. Riehn North Texas Municipal Water District Howard Martin City of Denton Bill R. Smith Trinity River Authority James W. Scanlan Fort Worth Water Department Charles F. Anderson, Jr. City of Arlington Water Utilities James M. Oliver Tarrant County WCID #1 Tom Ewbank East Fork Water Quality Council