DATE: Saturday, July 19, 1997               TAG: 9707190313

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B1   EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA 

SOURCE: BY CATHERINE KOZAK, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: COROLLA                           LENGTH:   90 lines

FRICTION THREATENS WATER AGREEMENT CURRITUCK AND DARE COUNTIES JOUST OVER PLAN TO PROVIDE FOR EMERGENCY WATER.

Renewed friction between Currituck and Dare counties over water service is threatening to swamp a recent agreement with a private utility.

Dare County approved a contract July 7 with Carolina Water Service Inc. that would allow each system to provide water to the other in an emergency.

The contract also must be approved by the towns of Nags Head and Kill Devil Hills, which share the Dare County system.

``Let's just say I have some reservations about this agreement,'' Kill Devil Hills Public Services Director Darrell Merrell said Friday.

The concerns, Merrell said, include how the town would benefit, and how far the agreement would go. There also is a question as to what exactly would constitute an emergency, he added.

And Currituck County officials, shut out of any discussion on the pact, said that Dare County is putting its nose where it doesn't belong.

In a resolution passed Thursday, the Currituck County Economic Development Board asked the Currituck County Board of Commissioners to ``take every appropriate measure to render this agreement ineffective and void.''

``Without ceremony, agreement or courtesy, Dare County by its actions has placed considerable strain upon any spirit of cooperativeness leading to coordinated regional efforts addressing disaster or mutual economic benefit,'' the resolution stated. ``(It) has overreached its geopolitical boundaries and responsibilities.''

Paul O'Neal, Currituck County board chairman, said that there are concerns about the private utility's capacity to provide water and its ability to hook onto Dare's 8-inch water main near Sanderling.

``First of all, it's supposed to be a reciprocal agreement,'' O'Neal said Friday. ``It's questionable if Currituck County even has the water resources to be reciprocal.''

Although the contract states that Carolina Water ``operates water systems and facilities on the Outer Banks contiguous and to the north of the Dare County water system and facilities,'' its closest system is at Buck Island, about 12 miles north of the county line. Carolina Water, which has a contract with Currituck County for water and sewer operations at Ocean Sands, also owns water and sewer facilities at Corolla Light, Monteray Shores and Buck Island.

It is unclear how Carolina Water plans to cover the 12-mile gap between its facilities and the closest Dare connection. Representatives of Charlotte-based Carolina Water Service, a division of Utilities, Inc. of Northbrook, Ill., would not discuss the matter in a telephone interview.

But the contract states that the water company would use 335 feet of 8-inch pipe to tap into the Dare water main from the county line. The company would pay to make the connection and install meters, said Dare County Commissioner Douglas Langford.

``They have represented to us that they have control of that line contiguous and to the north,'' Langford said Thursday. ``For them to enter into this agreement if they don't have control of that pipe would be pretty foolish of them.''

To the north are six private water systems, including one in Pine Island, a subdivision near the Dare line. Bill Hollan, president of Turnpike Properties, a Winston-Salem firm that developed Pine Island, said there is a ``handshake agreement'' between Currituck and Outer Banks' developers to cooperate in linking the six systems.

``All we've done is basically said in principle that we would be willing to consider joining . . . a network of friends who would be willing to help each other,'' Hollan said. ``We'd try to provide what we could without impacting our own resources.''

Hollan said developers would gladly buy water from Currituck County if it had it.

``I don't understand how in the world anybody couldn't think this is a good thing - the developers are the only ones who have any vision,'' he said. ``Currituck County hasn't done a damn thing. I don't understand any of this logic at all. They haven't put a dime in any of these systems.''

Bob Oreskovich, Dare County water director, said the county manager had asked him if the county system could provide surplus water in an emergency. With a maximum production demand of about 7.5 million gallons on July 4, Oreskovich said, the system could still handle production of an additional 2 million gallons.

He said he doesn't know whether Carolina Water has the capability to help Dare County in an emergency. Nor has he been advised as to how the water firm will arrange the hookup with other water companies on the northern barrier islands.

``Pretty much whatever they provide to us is a plus,'' Oreskovich said. ``And whatever they can give us, we will gladly take.''

Langford said the arrangement with Carolina Water could be beneficial to Dare County if ocean overwash occurs at the Kitty Hawk Pier or by Caffey's Inlet. Confronted with the upcoming height of the hurricane season, county officials are anxious to find an emergency water source.

As to the Currituck board chairman's objections, Langford said it is worth noting that the agreement is not between the counties.

``If he has got a problem, then he should contact Carolina Water Systems,'' he said. ``But at the same time, I would recommend they would provide them with an alternative. Dare County is not the bad guy here.''

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