(Contributed)
Ground broken on new water plant
By John ThompsonElizabethton Bureau Chief
jthompson@johnsoncitypress.com
ELIZABETHTON — Some of Elizabethton and Carter County’s most prominent leaders were on a muddy hilltop near Wilbur Lake Friday morning to break ground on a new $18 million water plant, but Watauga River Regional Water Authority Chairman Johnny Mills said the most important beneficiaries of the facility will be the grandchildren of those leaders.
“This will help the community solve its long-term water problems,” Mills said. He then pointed to his own grandson, 7-year-old Holston Howard, as the person on the hill with the most to gain from the construction of the water plant.
The plant is currently being built to a capacity of 2 million gallons per day. He said the plant is designed to have a future capacity of 5 million to 6 million gallons per day.
Mills then gave some statistics to explain how big the water plant’s impact could be if future needs demanded expansion.
He said water was being released from Wilbur Dam as he spoke. He said 2 million gallons would flow over the dam every 20 minutes. But even that was nothing compared to water being released from Watauga Lake just upstream. He said 2 million gallons could be released from Watauga Dam in just 3 minutes and 11 seconds.
“Is this a good idea,” Mills said of the water plant. “Yes it is and in the future it is going to produce more and more water.”
Michael Hughes, executive director of the WRRWA, said Friday’s ground breaking comes after a long and difficult process to solve the region’s future water needs. He said the idea for a regional solution came about in 1998. The decision to build the water plant at Wilbur was reached in 2001.
When the water plant is completed next year, it will provide most if not all the water for the Siam and South Elizabethton utility districts and for the North Elizabethton division. It will also sell water to the city of Elizabethton.
Longer range plans call for the water plant to eventually provide water to the Little Milligan and Fish Springs communities. The WRRWA is currently working to provide water to those areas by means of a deep well near Fish Springs.