Jordan Lake Project Impacts on Chatham County

State of North Carolina
Department of Natural Resources and Community Development
512 North Salisbury Street • Raleigh, North Carolina 27611
James G. Martin, Governor S. Thomas Rhodes, Secretary

November 19, 1985

Representative William W. Cobey, Jr.
U.S. House of Representatives
Washington, DC 20515

Dear Bill:

Thank you for sending me a copy of your letter to Colonel Wayne
Hanson, raising some questions about the impacts of the Jordan Lake project
on Chatham County. Representatives of our Department have met with the
Chatham County Board of Commissioners to discuss their concerns and we take
them seriously. I want to send you some of our own thoughts on this situation.

I am sure that the Corps of Engineers will send you the documentation
on the basis for payments in lieu of taxes and on the law enforcement grants
that have been made up to this time. Of course, the continuation of the payments
in lieu of taxes and the level at which these payments are made is a matter of
Congressional determination. We believe that these payments are justified to
assist counties who have lost a significant amount of their tax base due to the
construction of large Federal projects.

With respect to the law enforcement assistance payments, we believe
that there is a strong case for continued assistance from the Corps of Engineers.
The lands of the Jordan Lake project remain in Federal ownership and the Corps
of Engineers operates some of the project lands and facilities and owns valuable
property that needs protection. We believe that the Corps should continue to
bear a part of the cost of law enforcement at Jordan Lake, as it does at W. Kerr
Scott Lake and John H. Kerr Lake. As recreation sites are developed, the State
will be staffing them with rangers who can take on a large share of the burden
of protecting the project and the project visitors. The State Park Rangers,
however need to be supplemented by the Chatham County Sheriff's Department,
which alone has arrest power and the capability of handling more major incidents.
I believe that your leadership will be very helpful on this issue.

During the planning for the Jordan Lake project, a conscious decision
was made to construct several large recreation areas clustered around the central
part of the lake. The Poplar Point campground is one of these sites. Some of
the reasons for this design are:

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Letter to Representative William W. Cobey, Jr.
November 19, 1985
Page 2

1. The major visitor sites need to be located around the area of
the lake that has open water and adequate depths for safe boating.

2 From the beginning of the planning of the lake facilities, both
the Corps of Engineers and our Department have been very conscious of the need
to protect water quality at Jordan Lake. The Corps of Engineers has designed
spray irrigation wastewater systems for the major recreation areas, so that
absolutely no nutrients or other pollutants will be discharged into the lake.
This type of system is only feasible for large facilities that can justify the
cost of this kind of advanced treatment facility.

3. Large recreation sites are more economical to manage than a number
of smaller scattered sites, which would require more personnel and more time
spent traveling from site to site. Our Department has a very heavy management
burden at Jordan Lake and we have the responsibility of accomplishing this in
the most efficient way possible.

4. By centering several large recreation areas around the central
part of the lake, the other regions of the lake are left undeveloped. These
other project lands are, therefore, ideal for hunting, fishing, hiking, and
nature study. If many small recreation sites were dispersed around the lake,
it would interfere with these other important public uses. We believe that
this plan of development is one factor that attracted a large number of bald
eagles to the undeveloped upper end of the lake this summer. We hope that the
eagles will return every year.

We believe that many of the problems experienced by Chatham County,
up to this time have been due to large numbers of people coming to use the
Jordan Lake project without safe and adequate facilities. When hundreds of
boaters are crowded into one inadequate boat launch area, it is inevitable that
tempers will flare and incidents and accidents will happen. We believe that as
more facilities for the public are developed, and as the State Parks Division
establishes its ranger positions to manage each site, that many of these problems
will be resolved. In the future, the visitors to the project will be able to
enjoy the more spacious and high quality developed recreation areas with the
assistance and supervision of our State Park Rangers.

I want to mention one more change that we anticipate that should be
of interest to Chatham County. Up until late last summer, there were no over-
night camping facilities at the Jordan Lake project. All of the visitors came
for day visits only and probably brought most of their groceries, supplies, and
gasoline with them. When the major campsites at Jordan Lake are available,
campers will be coming from greater distances and staying for periods of a week
or more. We anticipate that these campers will make much greater purchases of
supplies and services in Chatham County than the day-use visitors.

Letter to Representative William W. Cobey, Jr.
November 19,1985
Page 3

We appreciate your concern about these problems and your leadership
in working toward solutions. We will look forward to working closely with
you and with Chatham County on these mutual concerns.

Sincerely yours,

S. Thomas Rhodes

cc: Mr. Marvin K. Hoffman, Chatham County Administrator
Colonel Wayne A. Hanson, Corps of Engineers