In September of 2008, a Town Employee came to several private citizens with concerns that the Sewer Laterals were being installed above the existing water main pipes.
(For those of you who aren't familiar with the project, sewer laterals are the sewer lines that run from the vacuum pumps you see being installed, over to the houses across the street)
Several of the people to whom that employee came looked at the issue, and discovered that the lines were indeed being installed above our water mains, in violation of NC State regulations.
THE STATE REGULATIONS ARE THERE FOR A REASON !! IF SEWER LINES ARE ABOVE WATER LINES AND THERE IS A BREAK IN THE LINE, THE SEWER COULD POSSIBLY CONTAMINATE THE WATER SUPPLY IN THOSE PARTICULAR PIPES.
After several months of investigation and emails back and forth between those private citizens, State officials, Town of Oak Island elected officials, Black & Veatch (the contracted Engineers for the project), the Town Manager and the Wasterwater Project Manager, it was determined that;
The Wastewater Project Manager had decided to intall 6' vacuum pits instead of 8' vacuum pits in approximately 600 locations, causing the lines to be installed 2' shallower than in the Engineers' Design.
The Project Manager did not inform the Project Engineers, Black & Veatch, of the change.
Black & Veatch, at that time, denied responsibilty for the Engineering approval of the installation phase of the project, but they later agreed with the State of NC that they were responsible for the final approvals.
There were, indeed, approximately 600 locations at which the sewer lines were installed above the water lines.
The officials from the Department of Water Quality and Public Water Supply wrote the Town of Oak Island, stating that all sewer lines involved would have to be 'sleeved' at approximately 10' to either side of the Water Main.
Troy Davis and Mayor Johnie Vereen stated that in their opinion, the lateral lines were not 'sewer' lines. Wayne Munden, of the Department of Water Quality, determined they were sewer lines and must be 'sleeved' according to State regulations. (Mr. Munden said to one of the citizens that if it flows through a pipe and you can't drink it, it's sewer! )
The cost of going back to the locations, digging up the old pipe, and either 'sleeving' the lines or replacing the 6' Vacuum Pits with 8' Vaccum Pits is over $250,000.00 to date, and has contributed to the long delay in the startup of Phase 1, originally scheduled for April of 2009.
In the last five years, the estimated cost for the sewer has increased by about $1,000,000.00 per month! Some of this is due to inaccurate estimates, some is due to mistakes as pointed out above. We are not, as of yet, halfway through the installation of the system.
We must have better oversight and accountablility for projects such as this from our elected officials.
When I am elected Mayor, I promise to communicate immediately with any person with concerns such as this, and I promise more accountability!
