Supporting local figure
Daniel A. Okun, a UNC environmental engineer from 1952, led the campaign in the 1980s to build the Cane Creek Dam and Reservoir as a water source for Chapel Hill and the UNC campus. He chaired UNC's Department of Environmental Sciences and Engineering from 1955 to 1973, and OWASA gave him a lifetime achievement award in 2006.
Also found in catalogs as Daniel Alexander Okun.
3 indexed records are connected with this person, and the index includes one work by Daniel A. Okun.
Related works found in catalogs and archives across North Carolina. Each links to the institution that holds or provides it.
In this interview, Daniel Okun, a professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel at the time of the interview, lays out the case for creating the Cane Creek reservoir. His knowledge about water quality allows h…
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Okun, who joined the UNC public health faculty in 1952, headed the department from 1955 to 1973, and it grew from three to 25 faculty members.
While Okun was on sabbatical in 1961 the university began considering the Jordan Reservoir as a water source; on his return he persuaded the board that Cane Creek, which his students had studied in the 1950s, was the better site.
After the 1968 drought left University Lake dangerously low, a study sponsored by the University of North Carolina and conducted by the engineering firm Hazen and Sawyer recommended damming Cane Creek. The Haw River, the proposed Jordan reservoir, an enlarged University Lake and the Eno were among the alternatives set aside.
People: Daniel A. Okun
Okun was chair of the faculty at UNC-Chapel Hill from 1970 to 1973, while still heading his department.
A consultant's feasibility study concluded that Cane Creek, west of Carrboro, was the best site for a reservoir to supplement University Lake, and OWASA began assembling land there. Cane Creek residents and farmers formed a conservation group and fought the project in court for years, arguing that it would destroy farms and hasten the decline of agriculture and that expanding University Lake had not been properly considered.
People: Daniel A. Okun
The Orange Water and Sewer Authority gave Okun a lifetime achievement award in 2006; the school credits him with leading the campaign to build the Cane Creek Dam and Reservoir in the 1980s.
Okun, Kenan Professor of Environmental Sciences and Engineering, died in Chapel Hill of complications of leukemia at age 90.
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Held in OCPL’s Rebecca B. Wall Local History Collection. Selected because their titles or catalog subjects provide wider historical context for this person; they may not discuss the Orange County person directly.
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