
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, February 26, 1991                   TAG: 9102260446
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: MARK LAYMAN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

SUPERVISOR SUGGESTS RESERVOIR ALTERNATIVE

Roanoke County Supervisor Lee Eddy wants the county to study expansion of the water-treatment plant at Carvins Cove as an alternative to the Spring Hollow Reservoir.

The engineering firm designing the reservoir recently studied the feasibility of piping water from the James River near Buchanan 15 miles to Roanoke County. The study concluded that, because of seasonal low flows in the river, a reservoir still would have to be built - and that would make the project too costly.

Now Eddy wants to know whether water could be pumped from the James River to Carvins Cove, and whether the treatment plant there could be expanded to meet the needs of Roanoke, Roanoke County and Botetourt County.

"I don't know much about the technical and economic aspects of doing that," he said Monday. "It's something I'd like to hear more about."

Carvins Cove is the main water source for Roanoke. Its treatment plant has a capacity of 18 million gallons a day - just about equal to the city's average daily need, according to Utilities and Operations Director Kit Kiser.

The city is planning to expand the treatment plant capacity to 28 million gallons a day. The project would cost $28 million to $30 million, but that includes construction of water transmission lines, Kiser said. Expansion of the plant alone would cost about half that.

Kiser was skeptical of Eddy's suggestion.

In the early 1980s, before the valley governments chose the Spring Hollow Reservoir as the best way to meet their future water needs, they looked at the possibility of pumping water from the Roanoke River into Carvins Cove and expanding the treatment plant. (The water in Carvins Cove comes from Carvins Creek and Tinker Creek.) But that was rejected as too expensive, Kiser said.

The James River is even farther from Carvins Cove than the Roanoke River is, so it's likely that also would be too expensive, he said.

County Administrator Elmer Hodge and Assistant Administrator John Hubbard, who is overseeing the reservoir project, were not available Monday to comment on Eddy's suggestion.

Eddy is the only member of the Board of Supervisors who continues to publicly question the feasibility of the Spring Hollow Reservoir.

by CNB