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Additional funds allow TWSA to extend water into Addie

By Lisa Majors-Duff
water and sewer lines Herald photo by Lisa Majors-Duff

Work to install water and sewer lines to the new Scotts Creek School construction site on Parris Branch is under way. With nearly $500,000 left in the project budget, Jackson County commissioners last week authorized the Tuckaseigee Water and Sewer Authority to expand the scope of the project to include a water line in addition to a sewer line into Addie community.

With a low bid nearly $500,000 under available funds, Jackson County commissioners last week approved an extension of the Scotts Creek water and sewer project.

The project to reduce straight-piping of raw sewage into Scotts Creek began more than three years ago, when Jackson County received a $1.2 million grant from the N.C. Clean Water Management Trust Fund. The total for the project, which calls for water to be extended from near Harris Regional Hospital to the new Scotts Creek School on Parris Branch and new sewer lines to run from Mills Branch to the Addie community, was estimated by engineers to cost $2.8 million.

With that figure in mind, county and school leaders, as well as the Tuckaseigee Water and Sewer Authority, agreed to make up the difference: Jackson County added $1 million; the Board of Education added $450,000; TWSA gave $100,000; and the N.C. Rural Economic Development Center put in $50,000.

Including engineering fees and Stillwell Enterprises' low bid of $2.1 million, about $500,000 remains in the project budget, TWSA Director Jerry King said. The extra funds will now allow water lines to be extended to the Addie community along with the sewer line being installed along Scotts Creek.

"When we did our sewer line easements along Scotts Creek, more people we talked to were interested in getting water lines," King said.
The project is under way with pipes ready to be installed along Parris Branch to the school construction site. Once Stillwell Enterprises completes this stage of the project, Department of Transportation officials are scheduled to widen the road about 2 feet to accommodate the added traffic the K-8 school will generate.

In addition to widening the road, DOT Division Construction Engineer Ron Watson said Parris Branch will be repaved with both a base and surface asphalt to stand up the new traffic. A realignment of the road's intersection with Skyland Drive is also planned to improve the turning radius for buses from both directions, he said. Paving should be completed this summer.

Jackson County was awarded the Clean Water Management Trust Fund grant due to a long-standing problem with straight-piping and failing septic systems along Scotts Creek between Maple Springs and Addie. Straight-piping has been proven to have a negative impact on the health of those who come into contact with untreated sewage; to denigrate water quality, harming fish and recreational use of streams; and to cause an economic loss by decrease use of affected streams by fishermen. Both straight-piping of human waste and failing septic systems have been documented by the county health department along Scotts Creek, and the history of the Addie community tells the story.

Portions of the land were strip-mined for gravel and filled with waste from the former Mead Corp. in Sylva. That waste included wood particles and ash, materials not considered suitable for functioning septic systems.

To receive the N.C. Clean Water Management Trust Fund grant, Jackson County had to adopt rules requiring those within 700 feet of the newly-installed septic line to hook on. The county also set aside funds to assist those financially unable to connect to the new line, with the understanding that individuals will be required to pay the money back as funds become available.

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