Cape Fear Public Utility Authority (CFPUA) has commented on the USACE disposition study regarding Lock and Dam Number 1 on the Cape Fear River. The surface water intake for utilities serving New Hanover, Brunswick and Pender counties is located above Lock and Dam No. 1 and serves approximately 400,000 people.
Lock and Dam #1 is critical to the drinking water supply for the customers of CFPUA. Full functionality of the dam must be maintained to: 1) ensure water levels behind the dam are sufficient to provide the Sweeney Water Treatment Plant with its full allocation of surface water and; 2) to protect the region’s source water from salinity downstream.
CFPUA’s concern with USACE’s advertised project scope is the uncertainty around which organization would take the assets on, should they be deauthorized by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE). As of now, the documentation states that USACE would seek to transfer the lock and dam to a “non-Federal entity”, language that could include a wide variety of potential buyers or ownership agreements. Because Lock and Dam # 1 serves regional interests and a wide variety of downstream stakeholders, transferring ownership to an organization that is not accountable to downstream communities could put the drinking water supply for Cape Fear Public Utility Authority at risk.
USACE is holding a community meeting on the study tonight at the Cape Fear Farmer’s Market (106 Martin Luther King Jr. Drive, Elizabethtown, NC 28337) from 5:30 – 7:30 PM.
Read CFPUA’s full comment on the proposal.
Most Recent GenX Results at the Sweeney Water Treatment Plant
CFPUA has received new GenX results for the Sweeney Water Treatment Plant from November 2018. Levels of GenX in finished water continue to remain below the health goal of 140 parts per trillion established by the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services.