NEW HANOVER COUNTY — New Hanover County could borrow nearly $17 million to address septic tank failure in two area neighborhoods, a recurring problem with the potential to pollute local bodies of water and endanger human health.
A written briefing presented to the New Hanover County Board of Commissioners on August 20 described the problem. There have been “numerous septic tank failures that impact the environment and pose a health risk, as well as a financial burden to the residents” in Heritage Park off of Castle Hayne Road and Marquis Hills off of Carolina Beach Road, the briefing said.
“Because the systems are so outdated, we have some washing machines that are discharging out to the property,” Assistant County Manager Tim Burgess told the commissioners.
The county has documented 67 failures in Heritage Park and 342 at Marquis Hills since 2007 and there could be more that have gone unreported or repaired by the property owners without permits, Burgess noted.
“Some of these failures are second and third failures for those communities,” he said.
After the briefing, the commission voted 4-1, with Commissioner Brian Berger dissenting, to pursue a loan for relief projects at each community. The estimated cost to build a pump station and sewer hookup-points at Heritage Park was $5.6 million; sewer at the larger Marquis Hills was estimated to cost $11.2 million. The work would decommission the septic tanks.
The county plans to borrow the total $16.8 million in separate loans from the N.C. State Revolving Loan Fund on a 20-year payback arrangement, though Community Development Block Grants could offset the local costs.
If approved for the funds, the county would hold meetings with the neighborhoods’ residents, likely by early 2013. And that’s where Commissioner Rick Catlin believes some anxiety will surface.
“I’m not sure that the residents out there are going to afford it,” Catlin told staff and fellow board members, as the affected residential and commercial property owners would be responsible for the roughly $2,500 system-development charges, plus varying plumbing costs.
“I don’t have a problem with applying for the loan,” Catlin said, “but it’s going to be a major economic impact on those residents.
“Public hearings are going to be a very, very important part of this, because otherwise it’s sort of like an involuntary … annexation that we’re imposing,” he added. “Some people might be totally happy with what they’ve got right now.”
Shawn Ralston of the New Hanover County Planning Department said the county does have a zero-interest loan program that could ease property owners’ plumbing burdens, though currently it only has about $70,000 available. The Cape Fear Public Utility Authority (CFPUA), which would manage the sewer, has a payment plan available for the system-development charges, Burgess added.
Heritage Park has 283 parcels, 90 percent of which are residential; Marquis Hills has 697, 97 percent of which are residential, according to the county.
But officials have portrayed the scope of the problem as wide and not simply confined to those subdivisions.
Earlier during Tuesday’s meeting, the commissioners heard a presentation on the vitals of area creeks and learned that some contain elevated levels of fecal bacteria. Readings were consistently high at Motts Creek, just south of the Marquis Hills area, though Brad Rosov of Coastal Planning and Engineering, the firm that studied the creeks, said the pollution’s source was unknown. Further investigation could determine whether flawed septic tanks are responsible, and Rosov noted the Marquis Hills area was one to monitor.
CFPUA ranked Marquis Hills and Heritage Park as the county’s top sites in need of the wastewater collection upgrades.
After the projects’ completion, which could come sometime in 2014 assuming all goes as planned, CFPUA would take over the systems, though the county would continue to pay the annual debt service. On that note, Catlin suggested the county try to improve its position and discuss more of a “business deal” with CFPUA, which stands to gain new customers and income through the projects.
