THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, August 25, 1996 TAG: 9608260772
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY MASON PETERS, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 161 lines
When a new General Assembly convenes in Raleigh next January, legislators will try to sort out the paradox of four northeastern counties that have water, water everywhere and not much fit to drink.
Like Virginia Beach, which plans a pipeline to draw water from Lake Gaston, Albemarle leaders have discovered that much of their part of North Carolina is short on drinking water, too.
``We'll probably be asked to create a multicounty water authority that will sort out the problems of sharing water and pumping it across county lines,'' said state Rep. W.C. ``Bill'' Owens Jr., D-Pasquotank.
A draft report released last week by an engineering firm hired by the Albemarle Commission and the Northeast Economic Development Commission proposed seven ``scenarios'' for coping with the water shortage through the year 2020.
If recommendations are followed in the most expensive scenario, the cost to just four northeastern counties and Elizabeth City in the next two decades would be an estimated $96.7 million to provide water at $2.45 per 1,000 gallons.
``The areas identified as being in the greatest need for water correlate with areas of greatest population and growth,'' said the report forwarded last week to the Albemarle Water Resources Task Force, headed by Owens.
The areas are Dare County, Currituck County, Camden County, Elizabeth City and Pasquotank County.
Most of the scenarios call for building a vast new k[sic] of pipelines and reverse-osmosis water treatment plants between existing water systems in the four counties and Elizabeth City.
``In order to establish a functioning Regional Water Authority, negotiations should be opened between Camden, Currituck, Dare, Pasquotank and Elizabeth City'' said the draft water survey submitted by Hobbs, Upchurch & Associates, a Southern Pines firm of consulting engineers.
At an Elizabeth City meeting of county managers and planners last week, the Water Task Force agreed for the first time to use reverse osmosis to make potable water.
Reverse osmosis is a more expensive method of treating water; it also involves the discharge of waste water that contains relatively high quantities of extracted contaminants.
But ``RO'' does have the advantage of being able to convert millions of gallons of available but brackish water on the Outer Banks. Basically, RO takes out the salt in water pumped from shallow coastal wells.
Eric T. Weatherly, an engineer with Hobbs, Upchurch, told the task force that reverse osmosis generates 75 gallons of drinking water for every 100 gallons run through a high pressure osmotic filter system. The remaining 25 gallons of highly polluted waste water has to be pumped into controlled discharge areas.
Owens said he and state Sen. Marc Basnight, D-Dare, would soon discuss the kind of legislation needed to create a regional water agency to make shared water available among needy Albemarle counties.
Basnight is president pro tem of the Senate.
Jimmy Dixon, an Elizabeth City bottling executive and chairman of the Economic Development Commission, said the panel has been studying preliminary reports from Hobbs, Upchurch on the threat of a regional drinking water scarcity.
``Available water exists, but it is in several different aquifers under ground,'' Dixon said, ``We must use the best engineering information available to properly locate test wells for future expansion.''
Dixon also said political considerations involving sharing water in the northeastern counties would have to be carefully worked out between all of the participants.
Several of the scenarios prepared by Hobbs, Upchurch call for sharing Lake Gaston water with Virginia.
Virginia Beach is building an 85-mile pipeline toward the day when it can legally pump Lake Gaston water to the coast. In several proposals 10 to 15 million gallons of the daily Lake Gaston drawdown would go to North Carolina communities in the northeast.
The interstate water sharing could be part of a legal agreement by North Carolina to let Virginia Beach pump water from Lake Gaston, which lies in part in North Carolina.
The Hobbs, Upchurch survey cost $200,000, of which the Economic Commission contributed $100,000 and northeastern counties and rural agencies the remainder.
Another available fresh water source is a phosphate mining operation near Aurora on the Pamlico River.
As much as 40 million gallons of waste fresh water is pumped daily into the river to keep the phoshate mines dry enough to dig out the chemicals just below the surface.
If neither Lake Gaston or Aurora water is used, the consulting engineers recommended plans that would provide regional water by sinking new wells and pumping water out of the existing aquifers under the northeastern coastal plain.
The quality and amount of water varies, the engineers reported.
North of Albemarle Sound, where most of the counties immediately concerned with water needs are located, the Yorktown Aquifer ``pinches out near the Virginia border,'' said the Hobbs, Upchurch report. The Yorktown and the Castle Hayne aquifers are the main source of underground water in the Albemarle.
New well fields would be sited in Dare County, Pasquotank County, and Currituck County under one of several 20-year relief proposals. Camden County is dependent on Pasquotank County for water now, but it is building a county water system.
Currituck County is digging more wells but is ``having great difficulty meeting ever-growing demands due to difficulties obtaining adequate quality and quantities of groundwater.''
Most of the wells in the counties north of Albemarle Sound have to make do with low-yield wells that make up in numbers what they lack in water pumped.
Only Chowan County and its county seat, Edenton, seem to be rich with available water. One Chowan well at a recently upgraded water treatment plant is reportedly gushing 2,500 gallons per minute, the report said. Chowan County and Edenton are both producing an adequate daily water supply and ``do not have problems meeting present or future demands.''
Meanwhile, Dare County, under the pressures of rapid growth and a high vacation population, dared to go to reverse osmosis before many sister communities.
But Dare, literally, is paying the price for innovation and some county water sells for as much as $10 per 1,000 gallons, the report said.
Under their several scenarios, Hobbs, Upchurch said water costs could vary as much as $3.83 for 1,000 gallons in Dare County to 90 cents per 1,000 gallons in Currituck County. depending on what kind of a new water supply was decided upon.
The most expensive proposals involve extensive new pipelines and water plants to augment existing equipment.
Under some scenarios, the planned ``Mid-Sound'' bridge across Currituck Sound at Aydlett will carry huge water conduits on or alongside it. Meanwhile, a Lake Gaston pipeline tap-off in Chesapeake would feed Virginia Beach water into a new North Carolina water network if a sharing plan is worked out between the two states.
The Water Task Force originally set out to include all of the 16 counties in the northeast in a single regional water sharing organization.
The preliminary Hobbs, Upchurch study released last week now focuses on the contiguous needs of Dare, Currituck, Camden and Pasquotank counties and Elizabeth City.
According to the study, the remaining 12 counties and several small northeastern cities either decided not to actively participate in the water union or sit on the fence for a while:
Beaufort County has plenty of Castle Hayne aquifer water, and for now water is not a priority.
Bertie County is building four separate water districts using shallow wells that have relatively good yields. ``Not interested in participating in a regional water system at this time.''
Gates County feels it has ``more than adequate water to meet present and future needs.''
Halifax County's principal water source is Roanoke Rapids Lake and and the Roanoke Rapids water system. Studies to increase its water supply are in progress .
Hertford County, including Ahoskie, feels able to meet present and future water demands and ``does not have an immediate interest'' in joining a regional water system.
Hyde County gets water from four wells sunk into the Yorktown Aquifer. ``The raw water is high in organics and requires reverse osmosis treatment.'' County officials feel Hyde's remote location does not offer feasible options for regional support.
Martin County is served mostly by municipal water systems that do not have distribution mains to tie into a single supply. ``County could develop areas if water was available.''
Perquimans County and its county seat of Hertford believe regionalization and interconnection of water systems is a key to meeting future water demands.
Northampton County feels joining a water authority is not a priority. ``Adequate groundwater supplies can be obtained without great difficulty.''
Tyrrell County is ``able to meet their system demands and there is only moderate interest in a regional water system.''
Washington County is planning a million-gallon-a-day water treatment plant, but with ``a moderate population and limited growth, no difficulty in meeting demands are foreseen.'' by CNB