T he environmental benefits of the Jordan Lake Rules outweigh the financial burden, and failing to reinstate them would be a mistake.
A state legislative research committee on Jordan Lake met April 16 to discuss efforts to reduce pollution in the lake.
Last year, the N.C. General Assembly voted to push back the deadlines for implementation of most of the Jordan Lake Rules while testing out the new SolarBee project, which employs aerators primarily designed to prevent algae growth in the lake and is expected to be a cheaper alternative. This move came with heated opposition from many environmental groups, which called for the reimplementation of the rules.
Legislators have spent years developing these rules that are focused on preventing the harmful runoff upstream from the lake that is largely responsible for its pollution, with some communities already in the process of installing these pollution-preventing methods.
Pushing back these deadlines essentially pushes back the process of cleaning up the lake, which is unacceptable. This cannot wait. The lake provides drinking water for more than 250,000 people throughout the state, and thus its cleanliness is of the utmost importance. Reducing pollution in the lake to an acceptable level certainly is not going to be a quick process, but continuing to push the effort back would be a mistake.
The state has already spent years developing the costly yet efficient methods of preventing pollution upstream — why spend valuable time testing the unproven SolarBee system while pollution continues to be an issue?
As of now, the General Assembly has no plans for legislation on the matter when it reconvenes in May, but this is an important issue that needs to be addressed immediately.
