Water Authority releases more details on New River plant
By COBY LaRUE
Staff
INDEPENDENCE, Va.—The Virginia/Carolina Water Authority Board met last Thursday, Jan. 8, to formally release information about the new location of its plant on New River.
The location off a private drive on Moxley Ridge Road was confirmed at the meeting. Meanwhile, a press release was given to those attending the meeting, stated that the authority has reached an agreement with a property owner for an option to purchase property for use as a site for the construction of a new raw water intake and a proposed new water treatment plant which will provide potable water for the towns of Independence and Sparta, N.C.
"The agreement follows several weeks of preliminary testing, engineering design, property appraisal and negotiations," the release said.
The option provides the authority with the ability to conduct extensive testing of the sites for suitability for the development of the intake and treatment plant. The testing is scheduled to begin soon and will be finished on or before April 1.
If the test results show that the property is suitable, four acres will be purchased from development company High Meadows at Virginia LLC at a price determined by a professional third party appraiser for the intake, treatment plant and as easements for ingress and egress and for both raw water and finished (filtered) water lines.
In addition to those easements, the authority also holds a conservation easement on about 20 acres of property surrounding the proposed intake. This easement will protect the raw water intake by prohibiting any development adjacent to the proposed intake location.
Addressing environmental and aesthetic concerns, the project will utilize riverbank filtration to obtain river water, the release said.
The method allows water to be drawn from the riverbank without any structure being constructed in the New River. The water treatment plant will use membrane filtration to clean the water.
The plant will be capable of producing 1,000,000 gallons of finished drinking water per day which is expected to meet the needs of the two towns for the next 40 years.
The Authority earlier awarded construction contracts for the water line between Sparta and Independence.
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