Another Interview!

Part of my assignment for the case study was to interview a knowledgeable person about the issue that the case study focuses on. I chose to interview a lady named Elaine Chiosso who is the Executive director for the Haw River Assembly. The Haw River Assembly is a nonprofit organization that was founded in 1982 to help restore and protect Haw River and Lake Jordan. Chiosso told me about the petition that was started by the Haw River Assembly against the proposed 751 South. The following summary on the issue regarding the boundary changes of Lake Jordan is based off the information given by Elaine Chiosso. Durham County didn’t go through the proper legislation for the state or county. As a result citizens started contacting the Haw River Assembly. The public suggested the Haw River Assembly get involved with the conflict regarding Lake Jordan. The citizens wanted the county to send the survey back through the process. Yet, the petition proposed to the planning commission of Durham County was denied. According to Chiosso, a petition is valid if it can get support from 20% of the public. Since the boundary line of Lake Jordan is drawn as an arc, the petition must have 20% public support from the east and west side of the boundary line. Although the petition did manage to collect the support of 20% of the public, it was still announced invalid. She also informed me that the boundary line was set when the lake was built in the 1970’s. The boundary of a lake is usually determined by the normal pool elevation line. This distinguishes between where the lake ends and the river begins. The Haw River Assembly also used submitted its own survey along with the survey that was proposed by the developer. There are various types of survey methods that can be used that are considered valid. The method used by the developer guaranteed a boundary change. This type of method is called surface water elevation. The method used by the Haw River Assembly was called Creek Bottom Elevation. The survey also used a method called Thalweg. The Haw River Assembly does not want support the survey paid for by the developers because it would allow the critical watershed area to change enough to allow development in this area. The development is called 751 South. The developer’s survey would also allow other people on the other side of the line to develop around the lake. Lake Jordan is on the impaired water list and is significantly affected by storm water pollution.
At first I was a little skeptical about being able to find a person that would be willing to talk to me about the issue, but it turned out to be pretty simple. I might have gotten lucky because Chiosso was pretty willing to talk to me. The interview was also helped clarify a lot of the factors causing most of the controversy. There are multiple surveys that can be done to determine a lake’s boundaries and they’re all valid. Personally I think this is a main factor creating problems between the developers, counties, and citizens.