THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, February 5, 1997 TAG: 9702050472
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY PAUL SOUTH, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: KILL DEVIL HILLS LENGTH: 50 lines
The Kill Devil Hills Board of Commissioners took another step Tuesday toward solving the decades-old problem of effluent being dumped into Buzzard's Bay from the Ocean Acres wastewater treatment plant.
The town's five-member governing board authorized an engineering study to determine the economic and environmental feasibility of three recommendations by a subcommittee of the Run Hill Working Group.
The recommendations include:
Using a tract adjacent to the Ocean Acres facility, currently owned by The Nature Conservancy, to construct a storage pond for the reclaimed water to be spray irrigated in northern Kill Devil Hills.
Disposing water from the plant on the Nature Conservancy tract adjacent to the plant.
A combination of the two.
Environmental Engineer George Wood said the options for disposing the treated wastewater look feasible. However, much will depend on the completed feasibility report.
``The state reports and the hydrological reports will tell us whether or not these recommendations are viable,'' Wood said. ``If these options are not feasible . . ., then the Run Hill Working Subcommittee will come back with some other recommendations.''
Mayor Pro Tempore E.M. ``Coy'' Harbeson was upbeat about Tuesday's decision.
``I think we have to look at what we can do environmentally and economically,'' Harbeson said. ``But this is right next door. I feel very positive about it.''
Kill Devil Hills Mayor Duncan Wright said the work of the Run Hill group and its subcommittee is an good example of effective intergovernmental cooperation.
The Run Hill panel is made up of representatives of the town, the Nature Conservancy and the Dare County Board of Education. The subcommittee includes representatives of the Ocean Acres Citizens Advisory Committee, the Dare County Clean Water Advisory Committee, the Dare County Soil and Water Conservation District, Sound Sense and the Surfrider Foundation.
Under a complex three-way land swap, the Run Hill working group negotiated an agreement to provide additional land to Dare County Schools and the Conservancy and has been working on a way to remove wastewater from the bay.
In May of last year, the Run Hill Subcommittee was formed to specifically study the Buzzard's Bay problem.
Kill Devil Hills has owned the wastewater facility for 11 years.