[The version of this story that appears in the Friday, July 22 print edition of The Times contains an error. Wells in Seven Lakes provide only ten percent of the community's water supply; ninety percent is piped in from the county system in Pinehurst. The error has been corrected in the text below.]
Nick Picerno, Pete Dotto, and Darrell Marks seem to be agreed on at least two points:
• The Seven Lakes area needs second source of water.
• Doubling or tripling Seven Lakes water rates in order to get that water is not a good option.
Picerno, a McLendon Hills resident who chairs the Moore County Board of Commissioners, brought a small contingent of county officials to a meeting with the Greater Seven Lakes Community Council [GSLCC] on Monday, July 17. The topic was water for Seven Lakes, and the wisdom of getting that water by reinvigorating the North West Moore Water District.
Picerno was joined by fellow Commissioner Craig Kennedy, who hails from the Northwest Moore area, County Manager Cary McSwain, Assistant Manager Kent Larking, and newly installed Director of Public Utilities Randy Gould.
Dotto, President of the McLendon Hills Property Owners Association, is the current Chair of the Community Council and was joined by Seven Lakes Business Guild President Marks, as well as President Mick Herdrich and former President Ron Shepard of the Seven Lakes West Landowners Association, and President Bob Darr and Dennis Roberts from the Seven Lakes Landowners Association.
The question: Where are we on water?
Dotto opened the meeting by thanking the county for the efforts it has made to increase the supply of water to Seven Lakes, both by increasing the capacity of the system of pipes and pumps that moves water from Pinehurst to Seven Lakes, and by drilling new wells in the Pinehurst area, to increase the overall supply.
Noting recent press reports about County negotiations with the Town of Robbins, Harnett County, and other possible supplier of water, Dotto said GSLCC members needed an update on the county’s plans — and could help spread the word in their respective community about what the county is doing to provide Seven Lakes with a second water source.
Currently, only ten percent of the community’s water supply comes from wells in Seven Lakes; the other ninety percent is piped from the county-owned water system in Pinehurst, through a single water main that runs along NC Highway 211. That system can provide up to 1.1 million gallons of drinking water per day; the largest one-day consumption of water in the Seven Lakes area was 906,996 gallons on July 1, 2009. Seven Lakes daily water usage typically doubles in the Summer months, when half or more of the potable water the county pipes into the community is used to water lawns and landscaping.
More Water, Redundancy Needed
While Seven Lakes isn’t currently exhausting its currently supply of water, even on the hottest, driest days, Picerno said finding more water for the community is essential for its continued growth.
“I look at Seven Lakes being a prime area in our county for growth,” the County Chairman said, noting that even the decade-old county land use plan highlights the growth potential of Seven Lakes and the surrounding area.
“But you are going to have to have water to grow,” Picerno added. “If the county is going to stagnate and die, you don’t need any more water. But if you are going to grow, you have to have it.”
Picerno said the western side of the county, with its proximity to both rail and Interstate 73/74 has “great potential growth in industry.”
“We could bring in a major player,” Picerno said. “But you have to put in the infrastructure to serve them.”
Roberts, who has served as President of both the SLLA and the Seven Lakes Civic Group, pointed out that capacity was not the only problem. “Having one source of supply” — that single pipe from Pinehurst — “Is a real problem,” Roberts said.
“We’re with you,” Picerno responded. “We’re on the same page. That’s why we are pushing so hard.”
North West Moore Water District
In recent months, attention has been focused on the North West Moore Water District, which was created to serve rural customers in northwest Moore County, but failed to achieve enough sign-ups to make it viable. Because the failed district has voter-approved access to $16 million in US Department of Agriculture financing, the County has considered expanding it to include both the Town of Robbins and Seven Lakes,with Robbins bringing an existing reservoir and Seven Lakes plenty of customer to the table.
But the Robbins Town Council has so far not been willing to put its reservoir and existing water system into the deal without being paid for it, and that cost would significantly raise the water rates for District customers — including those in Seven Lakes — would have to pay.
“It seems we’ve just spun our wheels with Robbins,” Picerno told Seven Lakes Council members. “They have the reservoir, they have access to the Deep River — they could be an important part of the solution.”
“But they have an asset that they own and want to protect,” Picerno added. “It seems we are no closer to doing anything from the day we first proposed it.”
Commissioner Kennedy, who lives in the Robbins area, said he feels, based on private conversations, that members of the Robbins Council are gradually becoming more open to the idea of working with the county — without demanding that the Water District purchase Town assets.
“Things are softening up with the town commissioners,” Kennedy said. He added that residents of the rural areas in North West Moore are eager to have access to a county-run water system.
He said the County is exploring whether it might be possible for the Water District to lease assets from Robbins rather than purchase them — so the Town doesn’t have to give up assets.
The key concern of Seven Lakes representatives was the impact of a Water District deal on water rates. Initial “back of envelope” estimates developed by former Public Utilities Director Dennis Brobst suggested that rolling Seven Lakes into the NWMWD could increase the base water rate from a little over $6 to more that $17.
“That number is going to be a very important number,” GSLCC Chairman Dotto said. “A lot of folks say, ‘Great idea, but I don’t know if I want to go with that.’”
“That’s why I made the commitment that you would know that number, and we would ask you to vote,” Picerno replied. The County Chairman has consistently promised that Seven Lakes area residents would be able to vote on the matter before being rolled into a new water district.
Let MCPU take the lead?
Business Guild President Marks said Seven Lakers have been very satisfied customer of Moore County Public Utilities. Noting that he is a strong advocate of finding a way for the county to tap into the surface water resource represented by the Deep River, Marks said he would prefer to see that effort undertaken by Moore County Public Utilities, spreading both the cost and benefits across the entire base of county water customers, rather than by a separate water district.
“If Moore County Public Utilities builds a reservoir and a water plant, and your rates triple, are you going to be happy?” Picerno asked Marks.
“I wouldn’t object at all, because then everyone in the county will pay equally,” the Business Guild President responded.
“It’s got to be equal,” Dotto added. “We don’t want to go the way it is with a fire district, where you move two blocks and your rates triple . . . Where someone somewhere else within sight is paying less than you are.”
“Good point,” Picerno replied.
Too many options?
One of the challenges the Commissioners appear to face in deciding how to provide Seven Lakes with a redundant supply appears to be an oversupply of options for getting the job done.
“We get close to deciding, and then something new comes up,” Commissioner Kennedy told The Times, “and it’s ‘Let’s just wait six more months and see whether this will work out.’”
Picerno, Kennedy, and the other County officials meeting with the GSLCC mentioned several alternatives to the North West Moore Water District, some more promising than others:
Montgomery County. The idea of running a water main west under NC Highway 211 to Candor, in order to hook onto the Montgomery County Water system is the option that has been on the table the longest. “They have a great reservoir in Lake Tillery,” County Manager McSwain said, but Montgomery County’s water plant and intakes are in need of significant upgrades. The State’s Interbasin Transfer regulations would limit the amount of water that could be purchased from Montgomery County to 500,000 gallons per day — and it’s not clear that they could provide even that volume, given the current state of their system, McSwain said.
Harnett County. Harnett County, from which Moore County already purchases water for the East Moore Water District, is planning an upgrade of its treatment plant on the Cape Fear River from 24 million gallons per day to 36 million gallons per day, Picerno told GSLCC members. “We can buy into the Harnett Count plant,” he explained. “We would own a share in that plant, rather than building our own plant . . . That is a very viable solution.”
If the county went that route, the most likely option for moving that water to Seven Lakes would be to bring a line from County mains that now serve The Dormie Club development on NC Highway 73, Picerno said, possibly building a third water tank somewhere in or near Seven Lakes South.
Asheboro and beyond. The County has recently become a participant in an economic development project that seeks to create an industrial “mega-park” on a large tract of land that stretches across both Moore and Montgomery Counties. Attracting industry to the park will require a substantial supply of water, and one option would be to bring water purchased from Asheboro or Randolph County down US 220 or other routes to serve the park. Extending those line far enough South could allow Randolph County water to be pumped to Seven Lakes.
Dedicated to finding a solution
“I really want to see some solid progress, other than digging more wells,” Picerno told the Seven Lakes Council. “We do have more water resources than we had two years ago, but wells can’t be the only answer. A surface water solution would be something that we could leave for our kids and grandkids when we live office.”
The Board of Commissioner has scheduled a Special Work Session on water issues for Thursday, August 18, at 5:00 pm. The Greater Seven Lakes Community Council is tentatively planning a public meeting with the Commissioners, focused on water issues, for sometime in October.
