N.C. wastewater treatment plant problems persist

NAGS HEAD

A year after Carolina Water Service Inc. promised to upgrade its wastewater treatment plant at The Village at Nags Head, there are still odor and pooling problems at the system that serves the private ocean-to-sound subdivision.

After 12 inspections of the treatment facility in the past two months, the state Division of Water Quality issued notices of violations and assessed $40,000 in penalties. The violations focused mostly on inadequate treatment of solids in the waste and ponding of the wastewater distributed in a spray.

"Essentially, their waste-water treatment plant is having difficulty managing water flow coming into the plant," said David May, aquifer protection regional supervisor at the division's Washington, N.C., office. "The water is poorly treated coming out."

May said there are additional violations pending, but those penalties have not yet been assessed.

Carolina Water, owner-operator of the 500,000-gallon-per-day plant, has made only minor modifications to the 21-year-old system since last year, May said, when a moratorium was placed on additional hook-ups until the system was upgraded.

Carolina Water is working with the state to get more time to do the work, said Martin Lashua, regional director for the Charlotte-based utility company.

Part of the agreement will likely include a compromise that will allow the penalty money to be put into the improvements, Lashua said. That application process will include a public hearing.

Lashua said new ultrasonic flow meters have been added and maintenance has been done on the infiltration pond. Additional upgrades, he said, are expected to be installed before Christmas. The plant and its spray irrigation field are located near the Nags Head Fire House on the west side of U.S. 158.

"It's gross," said Bob Oakes, president of Village Realty, which manages the subdivision's property owners association. The private subdivision, started in 1986, includes a golf course and a private beach club. Carolina Water serves 625 connections there, including some businesses.

"They seem reluctant," Oakes said about the utility, "to make the capital improvements the plant needs to function well."

Delays in the modifications can be attributed to efforts to find "the most efficient mechanisms," Carolina Water's Lashua said.

"We're just very cautious on what choices we make," he said.

For now, the high summer usage and warm weather have exacerbated the unpleasant smell wafting in the air at a local business.

"We're inside all day, and it's only when we go outside that we notice it," said Alicia Wingate, office manager at Outer Banks Eye Care, across from the Outer Banks Mall. "Sometimes patients coming in the front door say something about it."

Denise Harris, a village property owner, said she raised the concern years ago that the subdivision would "run out of sewage."

Harris said that allowing the mall, the hospital, several eight -bedroom houses and property outside the village to hook up to the unimproved system has been too much for it to handle.

"There's so many things that came together that made this thing explode," she said. "The same problems we've had this summer, we had last summer."

Catherine Kozak, (252) 441-1711, cate.kozak@pilotonline.com