5 PUBLIC UTILITIES COMMUNITY SERVICES ISSUES OBJECTIVES AND TOOLS Public Utilities & Community Services 5 PUBLIC UTILITIES & COMMUNITY SERVICES Public Utilities & Community Overview ublic Utilities Services The City provides and maintains public services and P Water Supply & Treatment Goal facilities such as sewer, water, parks, fire and police. It is also a regional provider of water and sewer services The City of Gastonia owns, operates and maintains To provide safe and to other Gaston County municipalities and northern York a potable (drinkable) water system that serves the County, SC. These facilities and services have expanded as City of Gastonia, portions of Gaston County, and five reliable services that the population has increased from both new construction neighboring towns including Lowell, Cramerton, Ranlo, meet current and future and annexation. In the recent past, the City built a Police and McAdenville, North Carolina, and Clover, South public demand, maintain Station, four Fire Stations, created a stormwater utility, Carolina. The City also serves a section of the Spencer Mountain Village residential development currently consistency with land use opened a Farmers’ Market, and expanded existing utility systems in order to meet the wants and needs of the under construction in Dallas. The City currently serves 71 plans and policies, and community. Over the past decade, the strongest demand houses in the first phase of the development. The City of remain environmentally for new construction has been in the southeast. However, Gastonia Public Works & Utility Department Water Supply and Treatment Division manages the water system supply sensitive and cost this is also the area with the least amount of available sewer capacity. New public facilities such as water infrastructure and treatment process. In addition, the City effective. and sewer should be designed to support the land uses provides emergency connections to Dallas, Bessemer proposed by the Plan. In addition, the Plan will consider City, and Belmont. The Water Supply and Treatment the cost of water and other community sewer services Division manages the water system supply infrastructure when recommending future land use. In general, the City and the treatment process. The water plant has been ISO will provide adequate, reliable, and affordable services 14001 certified since 2005 and became a North Carolina that meet demand and are consistent with development Environmental Steward in 2010. policies and plans; and will achieve these services through safe, environmentally sensitive and cost efficient methods. The Gastonia water system centers on the Gastonia Water Treatment Plant (WTP), a 25.2 million gallons per day (mgd) conventional treatment facility that was originally constructed in the 1920s. Mountain Island Lake is the primary raw water source for the City of Gastonia. Rankin Lake and the South Fork River both serve as emergency Public Utilities & Community Services 5-1 GASTONIA 2025 Comprehensive Plan sources. Other system wells. Water treatment plant structures generally have a Figure 5-1: Historic Water Use facilities include four design life of 50 years, with equipment lasting from 15-25 Year Flow in Gallons Per above ground water years. However, many upgrades have, and continue to Million Capita, Per Gallons Day tanks. be made to extend the design life of the treatment plant. 1990 15.5 256 Over the past 20 years, Providing treatment capacity to meet future growth will 1995 14.9 222 many large industrial require improvements to the existing facility and may 2000 14.3 179 water users, mostly textile require the construction of new facilities. The current water Water treatment plant 2005 12.2 149 mills, have been lost. In system produces on average 12.4 mgd of potable water structures generally 2010 12.8 153 order to make up for this and the demand is expected to exceed 23 mgd by 2020. loss in customer base, Water treatment facilities are sized to handle maximum- have a design life of 50 the City began providing day demands, which are projected to reach 32 mgd years, with equipment services to other municipalities. This strategy has helped, by 2020 and 36 mgd by 2025. Facility capacity must be lasting from 15-25 but has not been able to recreate the historic customer expanded to handle future use projections, through either base and water demands. As noted in Figure 5-1, the on-site improvements or new facilities. Figure 5-2 presents years. However, many gallon per capita per day (gpcd) rates have dropped the projected maximum-day demand per year from 2007 upgrades have, and from a level of 256 gpcd in 1990 to 155 gpcd in 2002. It through 2025. continue to be made is expected that changes in usage patterns and more Figure 5-2: Annual Maximum Daily Water Demand efficient water using appliances will further reduce the Projections (million gallons per day) to extend the design per-capita water use to around 140 gpcd by 2025. life of the treatment plant until a future plant Water System Facilities and is built. Future Improvements GASTONIA WATER TREATMENT PLANT The Gastonia Water Treatment Plant is a conventional water treatment plant located adjacent to the central business district, County Courthouse and jail facility on Long Avenue. The plant dates back to the 1920s and has a current capacity of 25.2 mgd. Two raw water lines enter 2007 2010 2015 2020 2025 the plant and both can be fed by all available raw water Year *Flows shown are based on demand projections for a sources including Mountain Island Lake, Rankin Lake, future countywide water system. and the South Fork River. The plant currently consists of 10 sedimentation basins and filters ranging in age from 17 In 2002 the City completed a Water System Master Plan. to 80 years, chemical facilities, a sludge plant, and clear This plan included guidelines for future water system 5-2 Public Utilities & Community Services GASTONIA 2025 Comprehensive Plan improvements for the planning period through MOUNTAIN ISLAND PUMP STATION the year 2030. A major recommendation of the During the early 1980s, it became apparent that the South plan was that the existing treatment plant remain Fork River was becoming polluted and costs for treating in operation until approximately 2013, depending the raw water were becoming increasingly expensive. It upon facility condition and growth demands. The also became evident that the South Fork River was unable plan also recommended that in order to extend the to provide the quantity of water required by the demand life of the current facility, the plant should be re- on the City’s system, especially during drought conditions. rated to demonstrate that existing equipment is able These circumstances led the City to begin looking for a new to treat additional volumes. Furthermore, the plan raw water source that would not only provide the quantity recommended that an additional bulk chemical of water to meet the demands of the City’s system, but storage facility should be constructed and that a new 22- would also be a quality source of raw water that could be mgd treatment plant be constructed at a site located Mountain Island protected from the pollutants which had degraded the away from the center of the City. The new plant would Lake South Fork River source. reduce the need for treatment capacity at the existing plant by about half. Eventually, the new treatment plant The City of Gastonia In 1986, a Raw Water Supply Study was prepared for the would be expanded to 44 mgd and the remainder of the City. One of the principal recommendations of the study acquired 432 acres along existing plant would be abandoned. While implementing was that the raw water supply be shifted from the South the recommendations in the Water System Master Plan Mountain Island Lake only a Fork River to Mountain Island Lake. Mountain Island Lake is would require a large capital investment, they would a man-made lake that was formed in 1924 after a tropical few hundred feet from the allow for increased capacity, safety, and reliability with storm dumped large amounts of rainfall into the Catawba the fewest operational and maintenance challenges. city’s water intake. This will River Basin. The Catawba River was then dammed, which help ensure that drinking resulted in the formation of Mountain Island Lake. The Lake Due to the project costs and magnitude of constructing a covers an area of about 3,300 acres and it stores about water quality is preserved new treatment plan and changes in water use demands 6.3 trillion gallons of water when filled to capacity. The (since 2002), the City will reevaluate the recommendations for its citizens. watershed, or drainage area, for Mountain Island Lake of the 2002 Master Plan to identify solutions that might covers 1,819 square miles. The lake, which forms part of prove to be more economical over time. This reevaluation Gaston County’s eastern border, has significantly better will consider possible maintenance, rehabilitation, or water quality than the South Fork and does not experience replacement actions as well as the proposal to relocate flow problems during summer droughts. the plant. The results of the assessment will determine the best option for renewal and possible replacement of the The Lake’s high water quality is due to two factors. First, City’s water treatment system to meet both the short-term Lake Norman acts as an enormous settling basin, removing and long-term growth of the City. pollutants before the water flows into Mountain Island Lake. Second, the Mountain Island Lake watershed contains relatively few point and non-point sources of pollution. Public Utilities & Community Services 5-3 GASTONIA 2025 Comprehensive Plan The City established Mountain Island Lake as its primary A Water Management Group (WMG) has been created source of raw water in 1995.