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RALEIGH — A pending change would weaken the newly minted Jordan Lake water quality rules before they have a chance to take effect, environmental advocates said this week.

The new rules will require developers and local governments throughout the Triad to curb the amount of phosphorus and nitrogen that run into streams. While they are aimed at cleaning up Jordan Lake, a water supply and recreation area in the Triangle, the rules will have the added benefit of making streams in Guilford County and the surrounding area healthier.

Initially, the rules were controversial, as developers and local governments officials complained about the cost. But a compromise deal was reached and the bill became law in June.

But developers say they have found a problem in the rules. They say standards for the amount of pollution runoff leaving new residential properties would be too stringent under the law as passed.

“We were going to be forced into using a bunch of land for things that might not have had the desired impact,” said Marlene Sanford, who heads the Triad Real Estate and Building Industry Coalition. The group lobbies on the local and state level for real estate and building interests.

Specifically, she said up to 20 percent of the usable property would have to be set aside for pollution-control measures under the rules as passed.

As the General Assembly moves toward adjourning for the year, a series of technical corrections bills are moving quickly through committees. While those bills are meant to clean up drafting errors, they occasionally contain substantial changes to legislation.

A tweak in an environmental technical correction bill would cut in half the amount of land developers would need to set aside for controlling phosphorus and nitrogen runoff.

In turn, that would let developers put more houses or apartments on their property.

“That’s better, more efficient, land for us,” Sanford said.

But environmental advocates say the proposed change to the rules will lead to dirtier water rolling off new housing subdivisions. That, in turn, will mean dirtier water in streams.

“If you’re going to reduce pollution, it’s always better to reduce it right at the source,” said Elizabeth Ouzts, state director for Environment North Carolina, an environmental watchdog group.

Sanford argued that developers would have to buy into off-site treatment facilities that would clean up the water by the time it reached Jordan Lake. And, she said, doing so would not save home builders any money.

But Ouzts said those facilities, known as mitigation banks, were not the most effective way to treat rainwater runoff.

“We see no reason to allow even more pollution and then count on mitigation banks, which are pretty consistently underfunded and underperforming,” she said.

The environmental technical corrections bill has passed the Senate and could pass the House before the week’s end.

Contact Mark Binker at (919) 832-5549 or mark.binker@news-record.com