The Durham County Board of Commissioners went on the record Monday favoring a deadline "not later than November 2011" for the state's cleanup plan for Falls Lake.

They also agreed to expedite changing Durham's development ordinance to fit state erosion-control rules expected to take effect this winter in the Falls Lake watershed.

County Manager Mike Ruffin said Durham County legislators, particularly state Sen. Floyd McKissick, were anxious for Durham's city and county governments to take positions on the Falls cleanup deadline. A bill to set the deadline was scheduled for a Senate committee hearing Tuesday and could come to a vote this week.

Wake County and the Raleigh City Council support a deadline of July 1, 2010. The state Department of Water Quality, which is responsible for proposing cleanup regulations, has asked for a deadline of November 2011. Its original deadline was July 1 of this year.

Falls Lake provides drinking water for 435,000 residents of Raleigh and other Wake County areas. Raleigh Mayor Charles Meeker, state Sen. Josh Stein D-Wake and other Wake County officials want action as soon as possible to deal with nitrogen and phosphorus pollution in the lake and prevent its "impaired" water quality from getting any worse.

While only Wake County drinks from Falls Lake, Durham County contains more of its watershed, and water sampling in 2005-07 found the highest pollution levels in streams entering the lake through Durham County. Durham County, therefore, could be forced to take the most extensive and potentially expensive steps to reduce pollution in the lake's five-county watershed.

House Bill 1099, setting the deadline at July 1, 2010, passed the state House 116-0 in May. Since then, it has rested in the Senate environment committee while Durham and Raleigh representatives negotiated. Durham has favored giving DWQ more time for the complicated and technical process of determining where Falls' pollution comes from and what measures would be feasible and effective.

Even preliminary versions of any rules, and analysis of their potential fiscal effects on local governments, are months away from being drafted.

Since the middle of last week, the bill's provisions have been changing "almost daily," said Durham County Engineer Glen Whistler. By Monday, the bill was in its seventh version and had been amended to set a deadline of Jan. 15, 2011, and a Dec. 1, 2009, implementation date for four sedimentation and erosion-control measures to remain in effect until permanent rules become law.

It also provides for cleanup rules to take effect as "temporary" regulations at the deadline date, although they could still be subject to legislative review and action before becoming law.

The Durham commissioners objected to such rules unless there is opportunity for public review and comment before they take effect. What form such rules might take has not been determined.