By By JURGEN BOEREMA
news@wdnweb.com
Contributing Writer
The effort to restore Mattamuskeet Lodge is in part connected to an effort to build a sewer line in Hyde County.
This sewer line would extend from the Engelhard Sanitary District to the lodge and serve residents and businesses along U.S. Highway 264.
In 2008, the Engelhard Sanitary District experienced a failure of its wastewater lagoon. A moratorium was placed on the system by the N.C Department of Environment and Natural Resources. The district was faced with the problem of not only providing emergency repairs, but also coming up with a solution to the problem it was experiencing with its wastewater lagoon.
Officials from Hyde County and representatives from the district looked to their wastewater-treatment provider, Envirotech.
Envirotech, which has an Outer Banks office, referred the officials to an Outer Banks satellite office of s Southern Pines-based civil-engineering firm, Hobbs, Upchurch &Associates to consult with all parties involved and recommend a solution. A meeting involving officials from Hyde County, Envirotech, the district and the Hobbs, Upchurch satellite office was held to address issues with the lagoon’s berm and liner.
Kris Noble, Hyde County’s grants technician, provided background on those issues.
“At the meeting, they came up with a solution as they were going to relocate the berm and pump down the lagoon, so they could work out bubbles from underneath the liner. It was a very technical meeting where everybody’s expertise came into play. In a long way, the role of the Hobbs, Upchurch in that emergency repair was a third-party oversight, and basically in consultation to our problem,” Noble said.
Noble stressed that county did not face any problems regarding the work of Hobbs, Upchurch.
“Hobbs, Upchurch came in, and they were able to evaluate the problem was with the lagoon because of their engineering expertise,” he said. “This was my first project working with Hobbs, Upchurch with the Hyde County government, and I am not aware of any problems we have experienced with them. They have vast experience in wastewater treatment and local government. They also provided us cost estimates that were necessary in our submittal of grant applications. DENR approved our repairs, supervised by Hobbs, Upchurch, and lifted the moratorium.”
Noble noted that Hobbs, Upchurch helped the county with the design and engineering for a wastewater-treatment upgrade.
Noble said this upgrade has two phases. The first phase is a sewer force main to the lodge, costing approximately $2.5 million. Hyde County received funds from Golden LEAF for the design and engineering section of this phase, which has been completed. The North Carolina Rural Center also awarded the county funds for the project.
The county has more applications for funding pending with the Clean Water Management Trust Fund, the N.C. Department of Commerce’s Division of Community Assistance and Golden LEAF. These applications seek a total of $1.4 million, which is the balance needed to complete the project.
Noble said septic tanks in the county are exceptionally subject to failure because of the soil type and high water tables.
Noble cited the results of a survey conducted by the North Carolina Rural Communities Assistance Project. The survey found a 52-percent failure rate of septic tanks within the project area. This was mostly because the median age of septic tanks in the county is more than 30 years. Many of those septic tanks were installed before the state strengthened regulations regarding septic tanks and their installation.
“This is a critical need to the county,” Noble said.
Noble put the amount of funds spent on the project so far at $417,000. This money came from Golden LEAF and was used for design, engineering and repairs to the lagoon.
“We hope that we will find about our remaining sources of funding within the next few months,” Noble added.
County Manager Mazie Smith said the county has consistently faced sewer-related problems over the years.
“I think one of the big problems also is that a lot of our citizens live outside of the township, and these septic tanks that they have are sewer systems that are privately owned. We would hope and love one day that we would have a countywide system,” Smith said. “It’s been cost-prohibitive to this point, so we have tried to do as much as we can to attack this initial emergency repair and then start building our way to a point where we can at least follow the main road and hopefully build it out from there one day.”
Noble noted restoration of the lodge is under control of the state government, adding that the county cannot speak for the state on the status of the project.
Some state officials commented on the project.
Tim Crowley, assistant secretary for communications and external affairs for the N.C. Commerce Department, said the project is in a state of flux.
“My understanding is Hyde County applied for (Community Development Block Grant) funding for a sewer-line project that may, ultimately, be extended to the lodge … but the funding is not for the lodge,” Crowley said. “Funds have not been approved at this point. Part of the requirement is that at least 70 percent of funds are used for activities that benefit low- and moderate-income persons.”
Julie Haigler Cubeta, senior director with the North Carolina Rural Economic Development Center’s Physical Infrastructure Office, provided more details about the survey concerning the failed septic tanks.
“Hyde County got a grant from, I believe it was East Carolina University, and they hired the North Carolina Rural Communities Assistance Project to do this survey,” Cubeta said. “They looked at a subset of the homes between the Engelhard wastewater-treatment plant and the lodge. They also checked to make sure that structures between the wastewater-treatment plant and the lodge were inhabited. That was a big question for us. There were a lot of hunting lodges where people don’t live. There were 174 connections looked at in this survey.”
Cubeta also distinguished between work being done on the lodge and work being done on the sewer line.
“I would not say that funding is contingent on the restoration of the lodge. We found problems. We know that we got failing septic tanks in the area, and we know that there were a bunch of kids playing in wastewater, basically. To say nothing of the fact of that in that area of the state, your surface water, groundwater and septic-tank exfiltrate are one and the same,” Cubeta said. “It gets to be a public health concern. It is something that we are committed to helping Hyde County with regardless of whether work on the lodge continues.”
Cubeta said that looming state budget cuts could play a part in the project’s future.
“Our funds are already committed, so I don’t think that money will be pulled, but I don’t know. The General Assembly will probably be looking for anything they can get their hands on, unfortunately,” Cubeta said.
Cubeta said her organization has put nearly $500 million into projects in rural North Carolina during the past nine years.