Towns Land Millions for Water, Sewer Upgrades

This article was first published in The Pilot on Aug. 9, 2022.

As municipalities strive to meet the needs of their growing populations, adequate sewer and water infrastructure has become an essential part of adjusting to this newfound growth.

A new slate of state water and sewer grants may aid this adjustment. The novel funds, comprising millions of dollars, were recently awarded in varying amounts to Carthage, Southern Pines, Aberdeen, Pinebluff and Taylortown for new infrastructure projects, renovations of existing water and sewer systems and infrastructure assessments.

The grants came from the N.C. Department of Environmental Quality’s Division of Water Infrastructure. It distributed just under $790 million in water and wastewater infrastructure to help pay for 385 projects statewide. Approved on July 14, the state sourced the funds from its American Rescue Plan Act dollars, as well as additional funds awarded in the state budget.

The funding comes at a time when municipalities across the county — and counties across the state — are struggling to update aging water and sewer infrastructure and provide residents with clean water. It also occurs at a time when growth in Moore County is increasing in rural areas, where public water and sewer infrastructure is less reliable or prevalent.

While towns have not received an official letter from the state confirming the funds, DEQ released the awards on their website at the end of July, along with a press release.

Raking in roughly $8.5 million, Carthage will receive the most grant funding of any municipality in the county. That money comes specifically from the state's ARPA funds for “at-risk” communities.

The funding, which fully met the town’s request, will allow Carthage to do an overhaul of its water treatment facility, complete with a new filtration system, Town Manager Emily Yopp said.

“All of the equipment is going to get upgraded so that we can have more capacity, capability coming out of the plant,” Yopp said, “especially with all the growth anticipated here.”

Carthage residents have complained about poor water quality for years, and not without good reason. Before the town upgraded its water filtration system in 2017, it received dozens of contaminate violations from the state. Those reports have dialed back, and the 2021 water quality report showed contamination levels fell within federal government’s standards for clean water.

Still, town officials have admitted that things aren’t yet perfect. The town’s aging infrastructure means some residents have continued to experience less than ideal, although not unsafe, water quality.

Yopp hopes that the new treatment facility will be able to ensure that all residents have “good, clean” water and that the growing population is well-served by increasing overall water supply.

“We want to get the plant upgraded so that we can reach that full potential, and then work on looking into other resources of water, just so we can be prepared for — if this growth is going to keep coming — then we're ready for it,” Yopp said. “And everybody can have good, clean water.”

There is not yet a timeline for the project, Yopp said. That will depend largely on when the funds get finalized and the town can gain access to them.

Alongside Carthage, Southern Pines also received a multi-million dollar allotment from the DEQ, specifically $5.4 million. Those dollars come from state reserves, and the majority of them are earmarked for rehabilitating the town’s sewer system, town engineer James Michel said.

The renovations will mostly be focused on the oldest sewer lines, which date back at least 40 years.

“You're talking about old cast iron lines, VCP — vitrified clay pipe — which were great pipe materials at the time, (but) have not really stood the test of time though,” Michel said. “We get the most problems from those, so we focus our efforts and rehab in those areas.”

Most of the oldest pipes are located in the town’s downtown historic district, but there are some in other areas, such as the Millwood Heights and Sandhurst South areas. Michel said the rehabilitation of these older sewer lines will help to reduce infrastructure failures, such as sewage spills.

Southern Pines had previously been budgeting $400,000 each year (adjusted for inflation) to rehabilitate old sewer lines, but with these funds it will now be able to get all those renovations done essentially in one go.

“If we had continued down the path we were at, that would have been 10 plus years worth of rehabilitation projects,” Michel said. “But we got the grant funding; we will accelerate that and get as much of it done as we can with the grant funds.”

Michel said there’s no telling yet how long it will take to complete the renovations. “It could be two years, it could be four years, but we don't really don't really know that at this point,” he said.

In addition to the sewer rehab funds, Southern Pines also got $400,000 for asset and inventory assessments of its water and sewer systems.

As far as small municipalities go, Robbins hit the jackpot. As The Pilot reported last week, the town will receive $4.3 million in state funding from ARPA “distressed” communities fund. The grant will be used to replace outdated water lines and install new ones, town officials said. This is especially good news for Robbins, since it has endured a handful of water outages, owing to faulty lines, in recent months.

Pinebluff, which has also felt the sting of water outages lately, will receive some relief from the grant. It will receive $233,000 in water infrastructure funds for an asset and inventory assessment. The town already has plans to set aside $120,000 of its ARPA funding to go toward upgrading its water system, which has not seen a major facelift in four decades.

Commissioner Guy McGraw said the additional grant funds will go a long way to get the project moving along.

“This will greatly improve our ability to work to get the system to a better place for our community,” McGraw said. The first step, he added, will be to do an “in-depth mapping” of the town’s water system, including “locating all water lines and sizes and types of pipe.”

Aberdeen received $150,000 to go toward asset and inventory assessments for its drinking water, funds which come from state reserves. This comes as the town approved a spending plan on Monday that would earmark $700,000 for water and sewer projects, including a new water supply system.

Taylortown’s funds, totaling $250,000, will go toward asset and inventory assessments for the town’s water and wastewater. The funds also come from state reserves.

It may be some time before residents can reap the benefits of the grants for specific water and sewer projects; local governments must first get through the state’s bureaucratic process to access the funds. Michel expects that to take anywhere from one to two years. However, municipalities can still put out bids for work during that time.