8/18/04

Holly Springs Plans for Future Wastewater Needs
Town Pursuing Short- and Long-Term Options

Along with the growing population in Holly Springs comes an ever-increasing demand for Town services. About one family moves to Holly Springs every day, and future population estimates continue to show the Town growing in leaps and bounds, with potentially 19,000 residents by 2007. Town leaders are constantly preparing for the future and the increasing demand for Town services, including one essential service – wastewater treatment.

The average Holly Springs resident generates about 75 gallons of wastewater per day; businesses generate varying amounts. Currently, Holly Springs is permitted to treat 1.5 million gallons of wastewater per day; Town leaders anticipate the need to treat 6 million gallons per day by 2025. In preparation for the future, the Town is considering short-term and long-term options to meet increasing needs.

In recent years, the Town purchased 25 acres of land surrounding the Water Reclamation Facility that treats Holly Springs wastewater. The additional acreage will be used for future expansions of the current Water Reclamation Facility. Already, design on a plant expansion to allow the Town to process up to 2.4 million gallons of wastewater per day is underway, with construction slated to begin in 2005. In addition, the Town is presently working with the state to request an interim increase in the amount of treated wastewater allowed to be released into Utley Creek. The Town has hired consultants to study the creek to determine if it can accept larger amounts of discharge than the 2.4 million gallon discharge currently permitted.

Construction is expected to begin next spring on a reuse water system that will recycle treated wastewater into irrigation water instead of discharging the treated water into the creek. The switch to using reuse water for irrigation would preserve drinking water, a valuable natural resource, while allowing the Town to expand the amount of wastewater it treats without hitting barriers, such as the limit on the amount of discharge allowed into the creek. Recently, US Representative David Price, who sits on the House Appropriations Committee, secured a $750,000 Environmental Protection Agency grant to help fund the project.

Preliminary plans for the reuse water system call for the installation of a reuse waterline along the streets in front of businesses, homes, parks and schools along Irving Parkway, from Irving Parkway east on Holly Springs Road to Bass Lake Road, and along Bass Lake Road to connect to existing abandoned lines that the Town has preserved for this system. Later phases of the reuse water system would install reuse water lines along other roadways in Town. Taps to the reuse lines would be voluntary.

Looking into the more distant future, Holly Springs is partnering with other western Wake County towns – Apex, Cary and Morrisville – to determine a joint cost-effective approach to wastewater treatment needs. One possibility for Holly Springs would be to pipe treated wastewater above the levels allowed to discharge into Utley Creek to regional lines, which would discharge into the Cape Fear River. Other more expensive options the Town is considering include building the Town’s own lines to release treated wastewater directly to the Cape Fear River, or building a line to transfer untreated wastewater to the Harnett County reclamation plant.

“We’re carefully studying and considering all regional options available to Holly Springs at this time. Participation in the regional effluent line seems to be the most economical and the all-around best solution to meet our needs beyond 2011,” said Stephanie Sudano, director of the Holly Springs Engineering Department. “This is why the Town Council recently approved participation in the next phase of the regional project.”

Town of Holly Springs - PO Box 8 - 128 South Main Street - Holly Springs, NC 27540 - (919) 552-6221 - Holly.Springs@hollyspringsnc.us