THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, October 22, 1994 TAG: 9410220270
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY PAUL SOUTH, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RODANTHE LENGTH: Short : 40 lines
Residents of Hatteras Island's three northernmost communities took a giant leap toward getting more and better water Friday, holding ground-breaking ceremonies for a reverse-osmosis water treatment plant.
Construction of the $6.5 million project began with little fanfare. Only a few county officials were on hand. The salt-water plant, which will serve Rodanthe, Waves and Salvo, can store up to 1 million gallons of water. The facility is expected to be completed by November of 1995.
``The thing I think is so unique about this is that while the city of Virginia Beach has been trying for 10 years to get water from Lake Gaston, little Dare County has two state-of-the art water-treatment facilities,'' said Dare County spokesman Charles Hartig.
The project includes a 6,835-square-foot building, a 1 million-gallon ground storage tank, a 200,000-gallon elevated tank, two 400-foot wells and 73 new fire hydrants.
Dare County Water Department officials anticipate a 100 percent improvement in the quality of drinking water for north Hatteras Island residents, who now get their water from wells.
Ocracoke Island installed the state's first reverse-osmosis plant in 1976. Dare County opened its first R-O plant in 1989 in Kill Devil Hills. That same year, Dare County officials began discussions on the Hatteras Island facility.
The plant, which can be doubled to its original planned capacity, is expected to be able to serve the needs of the area until at least the year 2010. The plant will also eliminate a critical public health concern, an extreme epidemic of waterborne diseases.
The facility is located on county-owned property in Rodanthe, along N.C. Route 12. Crews began laying pipe for the facility in late September. by CNB