Water pact comes to end

Chatham won't buy Harnett water

PITTSBORO -- The Chatham County Board of Commissioners voted 3-2 Monday to back out of a $32 million deal to buy water from Harnett County.

Instead, the county will upgrade its existing water plant and ask the state for an increased water allocation from Jordan Lake.

"By upgrading our own plant, we would still be able to provide for peak water demands for a doubling of our population without Harnett water," Commissioner George Lucier said in a release explaining why he voted to get out of the contract. "It is wiser to invest in our own infrastructure rather than paying for Harnett County to expand their infrastructure."

Commissioners Chairman Carl Thompson and Commissioner Tom Vanderbeck also voted to withdraw from the deal, which was made before they took office in December.

Commissioners Patrick Barnes and Mike Cross voted to keep the contract.

Barnes said he doubts the state would give Chatham more water from Jordan Lake because the county would be competing with Cary, which also gets its water from the lake. Currently, Chatham is allotted 6 million gallons a day from the lake, but its plant can process only 3 million gallons a day.

"[Thompson, Lucier and Vanderbeck] are speculating they can show need and get [the water]," Barnes said. "If the population grows like predicted, we'll need what we can get from Harnett, plus Jordan. They've blown the Harnett deal, so they better get on the ball and get the other stuff done."

Lucier said it would cost about $15 million to upgrade the plant, saving the county millions compared to the Harnett County water deal.

But Barnes said he did not think it would be cheaper to expand the plant. "Nobody's done their homework on this," he said.

For years, Chatham officials have been trying to secure more water for the county to meet anticipated population growth. In the past few years, more than 15,000 new homes have been approved for construction, and the need for water will far exceed the county's existing water plant capacity.

So last September, the board of commissioners, which included outgoing members Bunkey Morgan, Carl Outz and Tommy Emerson, agreed to buy water from Harnett County despite objections from Thompson and Lucier, then commissioners-elect, and Vanderbeck, who was a candidate for the November election.

The Harnett County deal would have given Chatham as much as 6 million gallons of water per day in addition to its Jordan Lake allocation.

Lucier said the county will lose $100,000 it already paid in engineering costs but will not have to pay to end the contract.

Now it will be up to David Hughes, appointed last month to fill the newly created position of public works director, to work on expanding the plant and requesting additional water from Jordan Lake, Lucier said.