Brunswick County

BRUNSWICK COUNTY
INTERBASIN TRANSFER CERTIFICATION REQUEST

Primary Applicant:	Brunswick County (TetraTech consulting)
Source Basin:	Cape Fear
Receiving Basins:	Shallotte, Waccamaw
Maximum Daily IBT request based on 2040 demand:
	Cape Fear to Shallotte and Waccamaw:	17 MGD

The Brunswick County IBT Certificate for 17 mgd was approved at the EMC's November 2013 meeting. -- Certificate

Brunswick County Public Utilities provides water to more than 30,000 retail customers and 11 wholesale customers including the towns of Oak Island, Shallotte, Ocean Isle, and Holden Beach. The County owns and operates the water systems in unincorporated towns within the county and provides water directly to individual retail customers in those areas. The Northwest Water Treatment Plant (WTP), one of two facilities that the County operates, is at 80% capacity on peak days.

Brunswick County had a grandfathered surface water transfer capacity of 10.44 MGD. The grandfathered capacity allowed the system to transfer water from the Cape Fear River Basin to the Waccamaw and Shallotte River Basins (each a subbasin to the Lumber Major River Basin). On February 17, 2009, Brunswick County submitted a Notice of Intent to Request an Interbasin Transfer (IBT) Certificate to the EMC. In that notice the County requested an authorized transfer of 18.35 MGD to the Shallotte River Basin and 0.94 MGD to the Waccamaw River Basin. These transfer amounts were based on a proposed expansion of the Northwest WTP from 24 MGD to 36 MGD and took into account population projections through the year 2040. In its final determination on November 26, 2013, the EMC authorized a transfer amount not to exceed a maximum of 17 MGD, calculated as a daily average of a calendar month, from the Cape Fear River Basin to the Shallotte and Waccamaw River Basins.

Prior to 2010, the County's IBT request was subject to the .22L statutes. However Session Law 2010-155 (i.e. House Bill 1765) made several notable changes to the laws governing IBTs. The session law defines four basins as "isolated river basins": New River (2-6), Shallotte River (9-4), Albemarle Sound (12-1), and White Oak River (17-1). The law allows systems transferring water to these basins to apply for an IBT certificate under the old, .22I statute through July 1, 2020.

Annual Monitoring Reports

Background Documentation:

Hearing Officer's Report & Certificate
Brunswick County Water Shortage Response Plan
Draft Interbasin Transfer Petition
Final Environmental Assessment / FONSI
Public meeting materials:
- Applicant's presentation (pdf)
- Division's presentation (pdf)
2009 Interbasin Transfer Certificate and Environmental Impact Statement Scoping Document(pdf)
Notice of Intent to Request an Interbasin Transfer Certificate(pdf)
Notice of Public Meetings (pdf) and map of service area (pdf)