Teala Spitzbarth

Wainwright, David
From: Teala Spitzbarth <Teala.Spitzbarth @sas.com>
Sent: Sunday, April 06, 2014 10:53 PM
To: Bashaw, Justin P SAW
Subject: [EXTERNAL] Comments on EA for Circulators in B.E. Jordan Lake
Dear Mr. Bashaw,
Thank you for answering my questions on the phone Thursday, I appreciate your time.
Enclosed are my comments.
Sincerely,
Teala Spitzbarth
Dear Sirs,
Thank you for accepting these comment to the Environmental Assessment for A Demonstration Project Showing the
Impact of Floating In -Lake Long- Distance Circulators in B.E. Jordan Lake. I appreciate the careful work that has been
done to describe the demonstration project, and also to mitigate the potential impacts on wildlife and recreational
activities in Jordan Lake.
My son and I regularly go out on Jordan lake with SUPs (Stand Up Paddleboards). We greatly enjoy and respect being
close to nature, and we also spend time cleaning up Jordan lake when we are able. Given that we normally paddle
closer to the shore to avoid motorboat traffic in the main channel, I can say that the proposed placement of the
circulators would make it more difficult to maneuver in the project areas. We don't normally go out in the Haw River
arm or the Morgan Creek arm, but I think the point is still worth making. Because the circulators may force kayaks,
canoes and SUPs into the main channel, where the motorboats and jet skis travel at a much faster rate. Perhaps the
signage created for the project can include warnings for that.
The other point I would like to make about the demonstration project is more subtle. The success of the project in part
rests on the attitudes of the people who will come in contact with it day in and day out. If most people out on the lake
see this as a benefit to water quality, I think they will be more accepting of the apparent inconvenience. But if folks
have read the newspaper articles questioning why the circulators are being deployed instead of the State making
changes to meet EPA limits on pollution levels, and then the circulators seem to be an obstacle to their recreational
activities, I wonder how successful the project will be? I wish both for the circulators to reduce the algae, and for that
success to not overshadow the need for the State to find additional ways to decrease (or remove) the amount of
pollutants (excess nutrients) draining into Jordan lake watersheds. I do not wish for this project to become a way of
temporarily increasing the TMDL of Jordan Lake so that the original 2007 goals of the USEPA TMDL are barely met, while
the same levels of nitrogen and phosphorous continue to move through our water streams. If the community is shown
the value of this circulator project within the scope of North Carolina's overall commitment to lower the actual levels of
pollutants flowing into the lake, I think any inconvenience will be more readily accepted.
Sincerely,
Teala Spitzbarth