6/10/05

Holly Springs Prepares to Meet Future Wastewater Needs
Town to Meet Needs with Holly Springs Plant Expansion and Lines to Pump Treated Wastewater to Regional Discharge Lines

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 1.75 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 carrying out short-term and long-term solutions to meet increasing needs.

Town leaders have determined that the key solution, both in the short and long run, is expanding the Holly Springs Water Reclamation Facility that treats the Town's wastewater. Already, design on a plant expansion to allow the Town to process up to 6 million gallons of wastewater per day is underway, with construction slated to begin next spring.

Looking into the more distant future, Holly Springs is partnering with other western Wake County towns – Apex, Cary and Morrisville – and Wake County in a joint, cost-effective approach to meeting longer-term wastewater treatment needs. As part of this joint approach, Holly Springs will expand its local wastewater treatment facilities and will pipe the Town's treated wastewater to regional lines, which will discharge into the Cape Fear River. Because of limits on the amount of wastewater the Town can discharge locally, piping treated wastewater to regional lines that empty into the Cape Fear River will allow the Town to handle increasing wastewater discharge needs as the Town grows.

“Although the partnership effort consists of constructing sewer lines and pump stations to convey wastewater to a new, regional water reclamation facility, along with discharge facilities to the Cape Fear River, Holly Springs is participating only in the effluent conveyance facilities component of the project – basically the regional lines and pump station that will transfer our locally treated wastewater to the Cape Fear River,” said Stephanie Sudano, director of the Holly Springs Engineering Department. “This option was the most economically feasible for Holly Springs, while allowing the Town to maintain control over its wastewater treatment process and the timing of bringing new capacity online.”

The total project cost for Holly Springs is approximately $30 million, which will be spent in two phases. The first phase is for the expansion of the Town water reclamation facility, which is expected to cost about $20 million. The second phase will include the construction of the effluent line that will transfer the treated wastewater from the Holly Springs facility to the regional facility line. This second phase is estimated to cost about $12 million.

Holly Springs leaders are planning on funding the project with a State Revolving Fund (SRF) loan at an interest rate of 2.27 percent. If Town leaders had chosen to fund the project through a General Obligation Bond, the funding would have had an interest rate of 4.5 to 5 percent. By choosing not to go with the bond and instead with the SRF loan, Holly Springs is to save money with a lower interest rate. Additionally, since the loan will be for 20 years and accrues interest on a reimbursement basis, the Town will save even more money; the interest is not accrued on the balance of the loan but only on what money has been spent to date and has been reimbursed to the town.

The regional facilities are expected to be complete in 2011.

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.

In addition to the plant expansion, an additional way the Town plans to meet its needs to release increasing amounts of treated wastewater is by constructing a new reuse water system. A reuse water system recycles treated wastewater into irrigation water instead of discharging the treated water into the creek. Using reuse water for irrigation would preserve drinking water, a valuable natural resource, while possibly 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. Investigations are underway to determine when construction can begin on a Holly Springs reuse water system.

“Not only are we pursuing traditional ways to discharge treated wastewater; we're also pursuing cost-effective, innovative methods of recycling treated wastewater,” Sudano said. “The end result is a Town with wastewater treatment facilities that meet the ever-increasing need that is demanded by a growing population and business base.”

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