Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, January 8, 1992 TAG: 9201080148
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: MELANIE S. HATTER
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG LENGTH: Medium
MONTGOMERY WATER LINE STILL IS PLANNED
The proposed $1.8 million water line from Christiansburg to the Elliston-Shawsville area remains in the works for now.But the Montgomery County Public Service Authority is keeping its options open and still is looking at building a surface treatment plant.
The authority voted in November to start construction of the line, but the topic came up again at Monday's meeting.
A petition opposing the line, signed by 450 residents, has been given to the authority.
"We don't want to have any of the New River water down there if we can stop it coming," said J.D. Henson of Elliston. Henson suggested that authority member Joe Stewart's spring could be used as a backup if necessary.
Not all were against it. Barry Worth of Christiansburg said the line was the "wisest thing" the authority could do, as long as it continued to research ways to use the Roanoke River. "Buying from Christiansburg doesn't obligate [the authority] forever," he said.
Authority member Roy Collins moved to rescind any previous action, but Chairman Ira Long ruled him out of order.
County Attorney Roy Thorpe confirmed that because a contract had been signed with an outside body, Anderson & Associates, the authority could not undo its actions.
Todd Solberg reiterated his objection to the water line, saying, "it's our responsibility to the public to always look at alternatives."
Solberg and Stewart had voted in November against the line. But the authority has not completely ruled out building an Elliston-Shawsville treatment plant.
Authority members met earlier Monday with a member of the state Water Control Board to find out what it would need to do to use the Roanoke River.
Merely getting a permit to build a treatment plant, however, would take up to five years, said Joe Hassell of the control board.
"I'd like to see a treatment plant down there," said authority member Henry Jablonski. He "went along" with the Christiansburg line to avoid Health Department fines.
Water problems in the southeastern Montgomery County have existed almost 20 years. Elliston residents were ordered to boil their water more than a year ago after a study showed that the spring supplying their system was contaminated by surface water.
Shawsville's well is not contaminated, but is supplying more customers than the state allows.
Christiansburg has agreed to provide the area with up to 650,000 gallons of water a day. That will require construction of more than seven miles of 10-inch pipe and a 250,000-gallon tank.
Water bills in the area consequently would rise from an average $22 per month to $28.50 if the county adds roughly 140 new customers to the 550 already getting county water. The average would go to $33.50 a month without new customers.
Chip Worley of Anderson & Associates Inc. of Blacksburg, in May had proposed two solutions to the water problems: the water line or a 130 million-gallon reservoir above Elliston. The reservoir would cost $4 million - more than double the cost of the line.