County puts up money to study water system technology

The Craven County Water Board made its first major financial commitment on Monday to what could be a new 3 million gallon nanofiltration system up and pumping by 2013.

“Things are going to be different from now on,” said Kevin Eberle, senior project manager with McKim and Creed. “The price of water is going to go up. There is no avoiding that. All of the methods are quite expensive.”

That would signal an end to a $3.80 per thousand gallons rate for Craven County residential water users of the average 5,000-gallon usage, a rate sometimes half that or their neighbors on other systems.

Such a plant could well provide the county’s water needs 20 years into the future but will also end an era of cheap water for county residents who now have the lowest rate in the region.

Craven County commissioners are the water board members and they voted to use $428,000 of water system reserve money to further explore the viability of a nanofiltration system that would ultimately cost about $35 million.

The initial money would be spent for seven separate steps, some happening simultaneously, that  show consulting water engineering firm McKim and Creed and the county whether it is the best system for meeting county water needs. The most expensive single step is $150,000 for test-well drilling.

The county, along with 15 others in the region, has been dealing since 2002 with an unfunded state requirement to reduce its draw from the Black Creek aquifer by 75 percent before 2018, said Rusty Hayes, Craven County Water System director. 

Hayes said the county has done well in meeting the requirement through conservation efforts and drilling additional wells in the PeeDee aquifer. The system pumps about 1.9 million gallons a day now but must provide water for peak use requirements that get higher with growth.

A transfer of additional Craven County Industrial Park water customers to New Bern’s system was approved by the water board on Monday, along with the transfer of some county-owned assets and easements. That will free additional capacity but still leave only about 300,000 gallons for new allocation until a new source can be secured.

The water board tabled a request on Monday for a county commitment of 60,000 gallons per day for a proposed subdivision between New Bern and Havelock because of capacity concerns.

“We’re not trying to stop growth,” said Jason Jones, chairman, but want to be even-handed.

Commissioner Steve Tyson said: “We really need to fast-track this project or we can stymie growth in this county.”

Eberle told the board that studies the firm has done for the county show the lower Cape Fear aquifer to be its best choice for taste and purity and the nanofiltration system to be the most cost-effective for purity and taste equal to what county water customers now receive.

He said the nanofiltration membrane treatment is not necessarily cheaper to build but would be less expensive to operate, produce better water, and be more environmentally friendly than some other methods. Plants using that technology now operate in Belhaven and New Hanover County and one is set to open in Jacksonville on Nov. 1.

The system uses salt as a primary filtering ingredient and removes iron and water hardness and alkalinity and discharges into an appropriate brackish or tidal estuary after aerating the water.

At least 13 water-related permits are required and are a part of the process funded by the water board on Monday.

The projected 2013 timeframe would deliver 3 million gallons per day and  put in place phase  one infrastructure for a 4.5 million-per-day system.

Eberle said if everything clicked perfectly in planning and construction, two years was the quickest time a plant like this could be operational.

The plant is expected to be built in the southeastern section of the county but  land or easements have not been purchased. That cost was a question mark at the end of Eberle’s cost chart.

Sue Book can be reached at 252-635-5666 or sbook@freedomenc.com.