Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, April 2, 1991 TAG: 9104020494
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-7 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: GREG EDWARDS/ NEW RIVER VALLEY BUREAU
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG LENGTH: Medium
The county could buy water from Christiansburg for the Elliston-Shawsville area and sell it to the 585 customers there for roughly $39 per month each.
On the other hand, buying water from Roanoke County to serve all the customers in the area or just the 310 around Elliston would cost in the range of $65 to $88 per customer per month.
The authority has been looking for alternatives to the contaminated spring-fed systems that have been serving the southeastern area of the county along U.S. 460. But no decision was made on buying water from Christiansburg Monday night.
The authority heard a report that one new Elliston well is producing only 40 gallons per minute, but that another new 292-foot well in Elliston is yielding a sustained 300 gallons per minute. The water contains minerals that make it extremely hard, said Chip Worley of Anderson & Associates, the Blacksburg firm that engineered the well-drilling for the county.
However, authority member Roy Collins suggested that rather than the county buying water-softening equipment, the residents should make do with the hard water or pay to soften it themselves because the county is considering buying water from Christiansburg.
Worley said that buying water from Christiansburg would probably be cheaper than the county building a water treatment plant and state-required 24-acre lake to provide water for the Elliston-Shawsville area.
In a related matter, PSA executive director Gary Gibson told the authority that the chances of getting a $500,000 emergency grant to link the Shawsville and Elliston water systems do not look good.
At next month's authority meeting, the PSA will - at Collins' request - reconsider the county's new commercial sewer rate charges. Collins said a businessman who operates a car wash and Laundromat in eastern Montgomery had complained his sewer charges have tripled since the new rates took effect in January.
However, authority Chairman Ira Long told Collins that the rate increase was the first for the authority in 10 years and that the rates were raised as a condition of funding the authority had received from the state.
At the beginning of Monday's meeting, David Hirschman, who is working on a research project being conducted through the Virginia Tech College of Architecture and Urban Studies, offered to work with Montgomery County in studying the county's water supply problems and needs. In return, he said, researchers would be able to learn from helping the county.
The college would be working with roughly a dozen test counties around the state, Hirschman said.
by CNB