Serving Boone, Blowing Rock, Banner Elk, and other towns of the North Carolina High Country | Founded 05-05-05

February 1, 2007 issue

Got Water?

Story by Sam Calhoun and Kathleen McFadden

American comedian and actor W.C. Fields once quipped, “I never drink water. I'm afraid it will become habit-forming.”

He was right. According to survivalist texts, humans can live three weeks without food but only three days without water. Because water is essential to life, it has been one of the principal topics of political discussion in the High Country for the past few years. How much do we have? Do we have enough? Where can we get more? Should county and municipal governments and institutions partner to create a water authority?

None of these questions has been answered yet, but work is ongoing on a number of fronts to try to determine some of the answers.

This week, High Country Press looks at several local water situations and checks in with Dr. Bill Anderson at ASU for an update on his water-related research.

Beech Mountain’s Coliform Advisory

Last Thursday, January 25, Beech Mountain Town Manager Michael Boaz released a total coliform bacteria advisory to town residents, advising them to boil water for one minute before consumption. On Tuesday, January 30, after water samples tested negative for the bacteria on three consecutive days, the town is waiting for a go-ahead from the state to lift the advisory.

A water-testing lab in Banner Elk that is registered with the state and is hired by the Town of Beech Mountain to randomly test samples of the town’s water supply detected the bacteria last Thursday and alerted Boaz. Unlike fecal coliform that is harmful and makes humans sick, total coliform bacteria are generally not harmful. And although the state did not mandate an advisory, Boaz alerted residents through a mass mailing.

The advisory read, “Total coliform bacteria was detected in water samples collected from the water system serving the Town of Beech Mountain in Watauga and Avery county. Coliforms are bacteria that are naturally present in the environment and are generally not harmful themselves. However, coliforms are an indicator that other, potentially harmful, bacteria may be present. Therefore, as a precaution until additional testing can confirm the absence of coliform bacteria, the Division of Environmental Health advises customers to boil all water used for human consumption (including drinking, cooking, brushing teeth, making ice and washing hands) or use bottled water. This is only a precautionary advisory. If there is an immediate danger to your health, the town will notify you immediately. Vigorous boiling for one minute should kill any disease-causing organisms that may be present in the water. Boiling water concentrates any levels of nitrates that may be present in the water. Infants below the age of six months and pregnant women should use an alternate water supply (e.g., bottled water) whenever possible.”

Boaz also released a statement pointing out, “This is only precautionary, we do not believe that there is an immediate danger to anyone’s health or safety. We are working diligently with state officials, our engineers and our labs to find the source of this problem and to correct it. Protecting the public health and safety is of the utmost importance to the town.”

The state requires that three tests must be negative—meaning that total coliform bacteria are not present in the water supply—before the town can lift the advisory. Because the town’s water has had three negative tests, Boaz expected the advisory to be lifted early this week, but by press time, he had not yet heard from the state.

Beech Mountain’s Water Quality and Supply

Riley Hatch, Beech Mountain public works director, said that the status of Beech Mountain’s water supply is good and that upgrades to the distribution system are planned for the “near future.”

The upgrade will consist of replacing the town’s 2- and 4-inch water distribution pipes with 6-inch pipes—a project with an estimated cost of $26 million.

According to Hatch, the Town of Beech Mountain pumps roughly 12 million gallons of water per month to its residents and businesses.

The quality of Beech Mountain’s water supply is typically very good, said Hatch, and a problem such as the total coliform advisory last week has never happened before.

Blowing Rock’s Water Quality and Supply

Scott Hildebran, Blowing Rock town manager, said that Blowing Rock’s water supply status hasn’t changed in the last few years and that the town’s water quality is “still excellent.”

According to Hildebran, Blowing Rock officials maintain that the town needs a water line extension and are still actively pursuing an additional raw water supply or an additional finished, or treated, water supply. Blowing Rock has been looking to partner with the Town of Boone for the last couple of years and is waiting on the results of the Boone water study to find out the town’s options. Hildebran said that the two towns have gone several months without discussions on the partnership, but the communication lines are still open.

“We’re still in a holding pattern to see which direction Boone goes,” Hildebran said.

Hildebran added that Blowing Rock’s water use hasn’t changed significantly over the past few years, attributing the plateau to new developments using less water through more efficient toilets and showers.  

Banner Elk’s Water Quality and Supply

Hugh Montgomery, Banner Elk town manager, said that Banner Elk’s water supply is in good shape for the town’s population size although the town is seeking more water to meet the demands in the next decade. Montgomery added that the town’s water quality is “outstanding” and that “no violations have taken place over the last ten years.”

Banner Elk currently has four production wells for potable water that range in capacity from 240 gallons per minute to 140 gallons per minute, with an average daily safe yield of 464,000 gallons per day. According to Montgomery, the town operates at about 50 percent of that capacity on a daily basis and although the town is permitted to pump 12 hours per day, only pumps for roughly 6 hours per day.

“So we’re operating at about 55 percent on peak demand for potable water,” Montgomery said.

But plans are in the works that would identify additional water sources for the town, according to Montgomery.

“We feel that we need an additional 150,000 gallons per day to take us into the next 10-year planning period,” he said, adding that that amount would mirror the town’s current wastewater treatment capacity.

Boone’s Water Situation

Water is such a hot topic in Boone that Rick Miller, the town’s public utilities director, gives a monthly water report to the town council. New requests for water service are quasi-judicial proceedings, with anyone providing information about the request first sworn in. The council has limited the amount of water allocations per year, water usage for every new project is estimated and the town has had a voluntary water conservation program in place for more than a year—all because Boone is approaching its water supply capacity.

One year ago, in January 2006, a representative of Charlotte contracting firm W.K. Dickson presented a report on phase two of the town’s raw water alternatives study. According to that report, the town was producing around 2.275 million gallons per day (mgd) at peak times, only 25 percent below the town’s permitted capacity of 3 mgd. With the N.C. Department of Environment and Natural Resources recommending expansion planning at 80 percent of maximum daily demand (Boone is at approximately 75 percent), the council faces the need for a new raw water source and processing facility.

According to the water report Miller presented at the January town council meeting, the maximum daily demand in December 2006 occurred on December 7 and was 2.16 million gallons. The average daily demand for the month was 1.733 million gallons.

Miller also presented a report to the council showing actual and predicted water usage for several town businesses, most of which came online within the past two years. Of the 33 projects on the list, all but seven of them were under the water usage that had been estimated by using the North Carolina Discharge Rate Schedule.

Several projects with the largest water estimates showed significantly lower actual usage:

•Village at Meadowview – 49,760 gpd less than the allocation

• Perkinsville Apartments – 15,335 gpd less than the allocation

• Hardin Street Apartments – 6,275 gpd less than the allocation

• Deercroft Retirement Center – 5,000 gpd less than the allocation

• Milstone Ridge – 3,317 gpd less than the allocation

• Pizza Hut – 2,687 gpd less than the allocation

In contrast, the largest overage was by Country Inn & Suites. The hotel’s actual usage was 2,137 gpd over the allocation. Despite the seven projects that exceeded their allocations, the total overestimated amount was 84,468 gallons per day.

In light of the differences, Miller recommended that the town’s water use committee review the data and the method of predicting usage.

As 2007 begins, the Boone Town Council has a total of 25,943 gallons per day usage to allocate to customers this year.

Well Water Study Update

Last year, ASU hydrogeologist Dr. William Anderson set out to find out more about Boone’s water supply—how much was actually available from wells throughout the area. He wondered how often the water in the wells sunk deeply into the fractured rock are recharged and how much water humans can draw out of the wells before they are depleted.

Anderson’s study has gained support since last year through partnerships with the United States Geological Survey (USGS) and the Aquifer Protection Section of the state’s Department of the Environment and Natural Resources (DENR).

Anderson originally made a public appeal for unused wells around the High Country that he could use for the project. The first step was to log each well’s border, sending camera instruments down the cavity on a winch. From the camera images, advanced software reconstructs a picture of the core that was dug out during the well’s construction. Then a caliper with three prongs measures the diameter of the well at regular intervals—the wells widen wherever there is a fracture. The next step is electrical tests to identify the properties of the rock. Finally, Anderson uses a heat-pulse flowmeter probe to measure flow rates.

Word about Anderson’s project reached far beyond the High Country and after an article about his project was published, he partnered with USGS and DENR’s Aquifer Protection Section.

Anderson is currently working with four unused wells around the area—one in Blowing Rock, one on Tater Hill and two in Seven Devils.

Having already collected “a lot” of data, Anderson has begun to log borders for three of the wells and expects more work to continue in the spring and summer. Once the borders of those three wells have been logged, Anderson hopes to do pumping tests as well. Once monitors are installed, he will be able test the water levels between adjacent wells.

The USGS has also recently made the Tater Hill well a real-time well, meaning that data collected from the well is available 24 hours per day on the USGS website, www.usgs.gov. “That fills a hole they have for Northwest North Carolina,” said Anderson.

Through the study, Anderson hopes to formulate a new scientific concept for how water cycles through mountain aquifers and how it reacts to climate changes and population growth.

Kraut Creek Water Study Update

Kraut Creek flows through the heart of Boone—behind Howard Street, through the ASU campus and eventually out into the New River. About 70 outflow pipes dump stormwater—and who knows what else—into Kraut Creek, a designated trout stream, while trash litters stretches of its heavily eroded banks.

Although the Kraut Creek Enhancement Project Committee is in the process of evaluating the possibilities, design options and cost of a stream bank restoration project, any restoration must be based on accurate knowledge of the quantities of water and contaminants that flow through the stream.

To provide this knowledge, Dr. William Anderson (hydrogeology), Dr. Christopher Thaxton (physics) and Dr. Carol Babyak (chemistry) have installed a stream gauge near the ASU water tower and a “grab” sampler upstream at the Jimmy Smith Park as part of a long-term monitoring project.

Now, months after the work was first started, the study has been expanded to include two more observation locations. Although the observation sites have not yet been nailed down, Anderson expects one to be located near Durham Park, pending approval from ASU, and one to be located near the Cooperative Extension center.

The study is still ongoing, but the three ASU professors have learned some interesting facts so far. Anderson and his colleagues have been surprised at how clean the water is in Kraut Creek, claiming that there’s not much cloudiness. However, their observation stations have showed the influence of urbanization in the temperature of the water. When the heavy rains of summer fell on hot parking lots and roadways and subsequently ran off into Kraut Creek, the observers noticed quick increases in the temperature of the water—even more severe than they thought, said Anderson. Because the three observers are not biologists, Anderson said, they don’t know what effect the temperature change has on life in the creek.

The two concerns Anderson and his colleagues have so far in the study are the quick increases in water temperature after heavy summer rains and the salt content of the water in the winter from the treatment used to melt snow and ice on the roads. Anderson discovered the salt content when he and his team measured the electrical conductivity of the water.

The study is continuing and the principals are currently looking for more funding for he project.