HAMPSTEAD — A special meeting has been called on Friday for Pender County commissioners to approve the construction of three new wells in the fast-developing Hampstead area.
The wells would increase Hampstead’s water supply capacity by at least 60 percent — adding 540,000 gallons a day from its current capacity of roughly 800,000 to 900,000 gallons a day, according to Pender County Utilities (PCU) Director Kenny Keel.
Report: Pender has “inadequate capacity to convey water” to coastal area, over $122 million needed
Each well is expected to pull approximately 180,000 gallons a day from the Peedee Aquifer.
If commissioners vote to approve the project during Friday’s meeting, Keel said the contractor would begin drilling the wells immediately, aiming to have each operational by mid-to-late summer. One well could be ready by July, according to Keel.
Construction would be completed by Applied Resource Management, an environmental consultancy and well-drilling firm based in Hampstead, at a cost of $275,000. The three wells would be located near the county’s Hampstead Annex building, Kiwanis Park, and PCU’s Transfer Station in Hampstead.
Commissioners are also set to vote on another $100,000 to help with a backlog of residents waiting to tap into PCU’s water line.
“This is for getting a contractor to help catch up to where we need to be, so we don’t have a long wait time when someone wants a new tap,” Keel said.
The work would include installation of meter boxes for each customer looking to tap into the county’s water system.
The vote comes two months after Raleigh-based engineering firm CDM Smith concluded a $169,000-study that found the county’s water system had become “limited in capacity to support future growth” along the county’s growing coastal region. It projected water demand within PCU’s water and sewer districts to double by 2025 and quadruple by 2040.
Calling for critical upgrades to provide uninterrupted drinking water to the county’s customers, the study proposed a $122-million project that would include the construction of a new reverse osmosis groundwater treatment plant in Hampstead, an expansion of the current water treatment plant from 2 to 6 million gallons a day (mgd), new pipes built parallel to existing pipes from the west to Rocky Point, and new elevated tanks in both Rocky Point and Scotts Hill.
The system’s maximum daily demands (MDDs) was measured at 2.16 mgd — over the current water treatment plant’s capacity of 2 mgd and consistent with the “operational difficulties experienced during recent maximum day demand conditions,” according to the report.
Drought conditions last summer caused a water shortage affecting residents of the Hampstead area for more than 50 days, a period in which mandatory water restrictions were placed on one-fifth of the county’s residents who use county water. Both tanks supplying the area ran dry over Memorial Day weekend.
Keel said the wells would help satisfy the area’s growing demand before the county finds a long-term solution.
“It’s a supporting interim project to get us through the next few years until one of those long-term solutions can be constructed and operational,” Keel said.
Commissioners will review various alternative solutions proposed by CDM Smith during their annual board retreat on March 5-6, according to Keel.
Friday’s special meeting will take place at the Pender County Public Assembly Room (805 S. Walker St.) at 2 p.m.
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