For updates,
scroll down
for updates scroll down
The Main Project of This Website is To Examine the Facts and Evidence for Promoting and Creating a Utility in Southern Granville County which has a Solid Infrastructure and which is Financially Sound with reasonable Customer Monthly Rates
Recent photo, to the left, is a water tower on SGWASA property in Butner. It gives a hint of where the problems of SGWASA begin; note the date on the tower is 1942
(photo by John Mayo of Butner)
UPDATES BELOW
Below We Bring You Important SGWASA Ideas, Events and General Water Quality Issues
_______________________________________________________________________
SGWASA and the Elephant in the Room - October 2021
The big elephant in the room is above or I should say two of the three elephants in the room! See below.
This is the actual infrastructure priority list created byS GWASA: how it sees its four priority problems. Looks technical and boring doesn't it? Not so; rather critical to the future of southern Granville.
And it shows you the horrid state of SGWASAs infrastructure. Twenty million dollars needed IMMEDIATELY for dangerous pump stations that are old and failing. They are the 3rd and 4th priority??? Why are they at low priority?? Because the 1st and second priority, the two elephants called the Northern Interceptor and the Southern Interceptor deal with allowing growth, growth, growth of south Granville. Because that is the obsession and crack-pot idea of SGWASA and the local developers, business people, and real estate agents and companies.
Their priorities one and two, are not what you and I need. WE need affordable water that does not smell or taste bad.
You must demand your representatives tell you what these first and second priorities are –the Interceptors -- and what they are for! What is their function? You will find they are very large sewer pipes that will be able to store large amounts of sewage as all the sewage moves toward the sewage treamment plant in Butner. They will say those are for more "sewer capacity" which means capacity for building 1000s of homes and raising your rates and transforming south Granville into a “shining city on the hill.” Fantasy and for the profit of the builders and real estate people.
Don't elect real estate people to your town Boards!
There is actually another elephant in the room! When it rains, the rainwater gets into the sewer system and causes over-flowing of sewage in the areas of the sewage pump stations. Dangerous stuff. How does rain water get into the sewer pipes? The sewer pipes from your home to the treatment plant have cracks in them. Some were laid down around WWII. And It is called inflow and infiltration. Look that up. The Exec Director of SGWASA once said it is horribly expensive to fix. You see that elephant is not even listed as a priority on the attached sheet!
Wow that's kind of scary isn't it? The wrong priorities and they are not even for you and some not even listed in the top four! We have a scary, dangerous water and sewer authority with the wrong priorities and not caring about you but caring about the developers and the real estate people.
SGWASA needs to "live by" rules of SUSTAINABILITY. That means taking care of its existing customers and not being fanatical about growth. Growth is not success. It needs to fix current problems and SUSTAIN its systems as noted above.
Elections coming up. Please study this and ask your representative all the needed questions posed above. Otherwise, our communities will be the ones going down the drain.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
February 2021: Do We Need Growth in Southern Granville?
Our Rate Hikes Arrive often from SGWASA and Why! Is lower quality of Life Also Coming?
Many of us argue for controlling growth in Granville County and maintaining the beautiful small-town, rural, agricultural setting. Growth as a great positive is an old myth. Granville County Managers including the SGWASA Board have fallen for it and they are probably being pressured by developers. And they are not being democratic about moving forward without our opinions. Our town, county and state representatives’ musts fight for our rights or we need to vote them out. OUR LOCAL TOWN REPRESENTATIVES CONTROL THE GROWTH IN OUR AREA. Even the Exec Director of SGWASA states this fact. His comments are also below. Please read below to get the big picture of what is going on. What is going on may startle you.
If the town managers just allow the "development" of thousands of homes and new subdivisions without thinking that through, you get chaos, rising taxes and a decline in the quality of life. Politicians always think new subdivisions are just miracles for new tax revenue! Thousands of homes always shoot up the tax rates for the obvious reason that you need new schools, teachers, paid fire departments, enlarged police department, new roads and on and on. That always raises taxes, causes crowding, pollution, and social problems includingcrime. We could even start talking about how growth and competition between economic groups can increase poverty for some.
Experts have looked at extensive studies which look at the cost of community services including the tax revenues generated by different land uses and the costs to local government of providing services to those same uses. Keeping land in agriculture or as open space versus developing land for homes is far cheaper in community costs and thus maintains lower taxes and the country-rural atmosphere.
SGWASA appears to be floundering and in over its head in debt, plant deterioration and old age. In a recent talk one of us had with the Executive Director of SGWASA, he admitted these problems and added other ones such as inadequate money, not enough trained staff, and low resources in general. Except for a 15 million dollar project at the Water Plant, new efficient technology is lacking, and past records of repairs and pipe maps are missing or inadequate. Maintenance of equipment is in a similar state; no records and not done on needed regular schedules. Critical GPS mapping for infrastructure is needed but absent. Water quality complaints have been continuous for a long time in Creedmoor.
Yet, with all these problems and deterioration guess what SGWASA is up to! In recent reports made for SGWASA are maps showing a massive 850-acre residential and commercial development project in Butner and another showing 13,000-acres that could be developed in Creedmoor. OBVIOUSLY, LARGE-SCALE GROWTH PLANS! See some of these maps and reports below. It is stated these are "for the development community" meaning the developers, construction companies and real estate folks.
In our talk with the SGWASA exec director he did not deny that SGWASA supported this massive growth plan. In fact, they are starting to plan for it now with a 50-million-dollar project! Already having studies in preparation of the actual construction. With all the problems SGWASA has, the LAST THING it should be contemplating is more growth! Real estate agents, builders, contractors, etc. are really getting excited about this growth. It will cost you and I a fortune in SGWASA rate hikes and general tax hikes. And all the negatives described above will arrive.
Rapid population growth strains political institutions and increases pressure on services. Leaving growth of cities and counties to the open market philosophy is absurd and primitive; it leaves out human values, environmental quality, and democracy. Lower quality of life could be coming.
Contact your local representatives in the above menu if you do not want to see the massive problems of growth arrive in your community. And your SGWASA rates to keep rising.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Photo below is untouched by us and exactly as it is in a SGWASA Engineering Report which shows a map of the Creedmoor - Butner areas the engineers say could be developed with new residential subdivisions. 13,352 Acres. YIKES! The largest yellow area is most of Creedmoor! To see the entire report, click here.
Below is another map from another engineering study done for SGWASA, costing us large sums of money. It is showing massive growth plans for the Butner-Creedmoor area. Butner is to the far left. Note the headline is: "sewer upgrades-immediate.
Note the red text in the Butner area and the red lines representing proposed "interceptor extensions." And interceptor is a large sewer pipe that collects sewage from a large area and sends it to the sewage treatment plant. So the red lines will apparently be extensions of existing interceptors for collecting sewage. AND THE LOCATION of these new sewer pipes is critical to note. The Northern interceptor pipe is just north of a massive area to be developed in Butner, known as the Butner Gateway Project. And the Southern interceptor pipe is just south of this giant growth area.
You can read about this Butner Gateway project by clicking here. You will see extensive maps and plans to build a 850 acre project of residential and commercial buildings on the west side of I-85, just along the western boarder of I-85 running between the two exits and west to C street in Butner. See maps on the previous link. THIS MASSIVE PROJECT WILL OF COURSE REQUIRE SEWER CONNECTIONS! Therefore these pipes costing about 28 million will be paid for by you through your SGWASA bills! And your SGWASA rates will go up! For growth, growth, growth and crowding and tax increases in the Butner-Creedmoor area. For A BUTNER PROJECT! Expansion and growth when the existing water and sewer plants and the water pipes and sewage pipes and pumps are falling apart? You can see all the deterioration stated in the reports above!
Does the sound like a great idea to you?
Who is in charge of these decisions on growth, growth, growth? Who has the power to order these massive projects built? For our democratic rights in our country, we need to express our opinion on these massive plans to our representatives. You and I should be deciding if these projects go forward costing us a fortune and raising our SGWASA rates! For what? New developments in the town of Butner? Or will Creedmoor get something out of this? Are there projects which must be done now to save the water or sewer plants or distribution and collection plumps and pipes? Or is this primarily for growth that we do not need? Critical questions for our future and SGWASA rates and home values!
We are trying to present this complex of ideas in some orderly fashion such that you can "see what is going on." Some of us suspect we are not getting the "straight story."
"The people have no voice because they have no information." Gore Vidal
INow we need to pull this together and see if we know what SGWASA is up to? This project above is called the "I-85 Sanitary Sewer Project.So let's look at some more critical items from reports and a writeup on this project by the SGWASA Executive Director, Scott Schroyer. As noted above some of us have had discussion with him which may give us some insight into what SGWASA really has in mind. SGWASA is not clear on what they hope to do versus what really needs to be done, what they really can afford to do, what the state will let them do, and what the developers, construction industry and real estate people are pressuring them to do. And who has the final say in what kind of development occurs in our area? It should be us! Is this strange lack of lack of clarity just a weakness in writing and communicating coming out of SGWASA ?
First take a look at this extracted page below from a more recent report from the ED of SGWASA, Mr. Schroyer, presented in a 2020 Board Meeting. You will see it has put forward an approximately 50 million dollar project with four sub-projects which it has prioritized, first to last. NOTE the first two are the 28 million dollar northern and southern interceptor pipes. Strangely, they are no longer referred to as "extensions," as in the other, earlier reports above. They are simply called sewer pipes? The next two priorities are for sewer pump stations with problems in Creedmoor. Force Mains are the pipes leading out of the sewer pumps which push the sewage to the sewerage plant. See the full report here with cost details and calendar schedule.
Money for studies for the Priorities #1 and 2, the interceptors, Phase I Design, was voted for at the February 2021 SGWASA Board Meeting ($169,000) . So they are getting serious about the 28 million dollar project for the interceptors. This report shows a time line of July being when the SGWASA Board will start making final decisions on funding for this massive project. Why are these interceptors so important? Are they for the Butner Gateway Project? No explanations! Very Strange and very unclear. Are they simply for increasing capacity of SGWASA? Remember, SGWASA is now limited in ""growth" due to having reached its engineering sewage capacity -- the pumps and pipes cannot handle any more sewage.This should be the ideal situation for us! We have full control of growth and can limit it to whatever we want, and maintain the countryside, rural, small town setting most of us want. But what is driving this insidious push for large "interceptor" pipes if it it not for greater capacity for growth. We could stop building into new areas and just fix whatever breaks or stops working: Sustainability not Growth!
So let's dig deeper and see what the Executive Director says. On the SGWASA web site he says this below in italic bold paragraphs in quotes.
"This page provides information related to the I-85 Sanitary Sewer Improvement Master Plan Project. Reading the information will help you understand the facts that this project focuses on fixing the existing sanitary sewer lines and pump stations in the existing SGWASA service area that are needed now."
We say:Why Now?
"As a Master Plan, this project prepares SGWASA to meet future growth of the communities served by SGWASA, however, SGWASA does not drive this growth, as that is not SGWASA's responsibility. As a public utility, SGWASA is responsible to plan utility needs far into the future. Developers interested in building in the communities served by SGWASA must get approval from the local community. SGWASA works in coordination with the local community and developer to coordinate utility infrastructure that the developer will pay for."
Note the above paragraph who he states drives growth: the community. The communities of Butner and Creedmoor and Stem. All the people in those communities. Not just the developers and the store owners and the business people. This appears to be saying that the town boards of Butner , Creedmoor and Stem, want growth and they have discussed this and have voted on growth in the SGWASA area costing millions of dollars for SGWASA to build appropriate sewage capacity and thus raise our SGWASA rates up out of sight and also allowing massive growth in our area. Has your town Board studied this --voted on this with your input? Does a majority of the voters want this growth and all the negatives connected with it?
"In summary, phase 1 consists of additional modeling and analysis to further refine the interceptor pipe sizing to ensure capacity for current and future development, while also exploring the option of a new regional lift station in place of the gravity interceptors. Phase 2 will consist of the design, permitting and construction administration of the best option selected. Staff will bring the phase 2 work and the associated costs back to the SGWASA Board for review and consideration for approval."
Again, in the above paragraph, we have "future development." Development is driving this project and we need to all ask if this is what we want! Is it what the towns want? Is it what the people want? Let's have some democratic light shine into this massive project! See all of the Exec Directors comments here.
At the Feb. 9, 2021 regular monthly Board Meeting, the South Granville Water and Sewer Authority Board of Directors approved the phase 1 engineering contract with CDM Smith Company for $169,000. During the next few months, CDM Smith will be working on phase 1 engineering plans for the interceptors.
So they are moving on with the project and there is very little doubt that this project is for growth and expansion, not for general repair and maintenance. It is for "the extension of their collection/pumping system to serve the development community." That very quote is from one of "Master Plan Reports" for this project. Note "the development community" terminology which of course refers to the developers, contractors and real estate community. See that report here; first page. By July of 2021 the Board is scheduled to make final funding decisions for this project. Has this project been determined democratically? Have most of us decided growth for the sake of growth is what we want? We bet the developers, construction companies and real estate community thinks this is a fantastic idea. If you would like to live in a nice quiet rural, countryside setting join us to start our own projects to remove all representatives and authorities that need to be removed in upcoming elections. Let us all start talking about this. Let your elected officials know what you think by using the "Contact Your Representative" tab at the menu on the top of this page.
__________________________________________________________________________
The Black Slime on your Faucets, Bath fixtures, and other Places
Recently, many SGWASA customers have been complaining of "black slime or goop" on, or in their water fixtures including toilets, bath/sink faucets etc. This item of discussion comes up often in SGWASA territory. One wonders if the customers have contacted SGWASA in that regard and gotten good explanations? This problem is connected with the mineral manganese.
Several years ago, the Federal Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) confirmed the fact that “The amount of manganese in the SGWASA drinking water could result in staining of clothes and fixtures, poor water quality (e.g. color, taste) and impact the quality of life of people who use the drinking water." That's a quote. We need to check to see if SGWASA has corrected that problem. From all indications, it has not.
We offer several documents which might answer your questions in regard to black slimy material in and on your plumbing.
Black Slime and Manganese Related? Washington Post Artricle
References for Manganese and Slime
Manganese Fact Sheet from Filter Maker
Black Slime Explanation - from A Water and Sewer Company
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
May 13th 2020 - Critical Meeting on 2020 - 2021 Budget and Rate Hike
We thought some of you might like to see what happened at the May 13th SGWASA meeting where the SGWASA Board voted to “maybe raise your water and sewer rates.” That’s what they decided; to maybe raise your rates.
I found the meeting very strange indeed. Disorganized and difficult to follow. Roberts Rules, which are rules to guide meetings and keep them clear and on-track, seemed to have vaporized.
So below are the official minutes of the SGWASA May 13th SGWASA Meeting, where the final 2020-2021budget was voted on with a unanimous yes vote. A new budget with a possible rate hike for customers.
(The minutes are copied and pasted exactly below, from the June 9th Agenda -- attached).
Does anyone think this was a well-run meeting? Not us. Hardly can be followed. “Motions sitting on the floor” and “getting lost” etc. Unclear which motions are being voted on. A very poorly run meeting. And we are not going to say “in our humble opinion.”
Red text below is our questions or comments. Everything else is the exact minutes from attached agenda except for some yellow highlights which emphasize problems of procedures and confused Board Members.
You can listen to the entire meeting if you want to be tortured for a short time. Go to the SGWASA Calendar page: https://www.sgwasa.org/calendar
and go back to May. Click on the May 13 meeting date and then select the video or audio link.
So, this is how government business is done in south Granville? We had a confusing meeting which left rate hikes as an open option! So, nothing serious done regarding our ongoing, long-term problems at SGWASA.
text of minutes is below:
--------------------------
III. Consideration of Fiscal Year 20-21 Budget Ordinance
Chairman Gooch opened the meeting at 7:00 p.m. and addressed the Board asking if there are any questions or comments regarding the proposed Budget Ordinance. Chairman Gooch stated we’ve heard from the Executive Director and received his recommendation. What are the thoughts from the Board?
Kenneth McLamb- I think it’s a bad time for a rate increase, I think it would be bad PR for the Board and SGWASA to do that. I spoke with Jimmy Gooch today and we think we should look at this in the next 3 months. What is the meaning of this. This needs detail.
Georgana Kicinski- I understand that we want to reconsider the Budget and I just want to mention, last night it was stated the water population in Wake County and Durham water rates were much lower and ours were higher than theirs, I just want to remind everybody the population of customers in Wake County are over 195,000 and the service customers in Durham County are 88,716 and OWASA 21,200 and Hillsborough 64,022, SGWASA service customers is 56,038. I just want to remind everybody that our customer-base is not a lot of people when spreading the costs of running this water company around.
If we are going to compare Raleigh and Durham to SGWASA, I wanted to point it out that our customer base is so small, the ratio of the expenses that we have to incur and the repair costs that we have to incur. You’ve asked for better water and in order to have better water, we have to fix the problems. I understand that this is not a good time for raising rates, I would like to ask the Chairman, to make motion for reconsideration of the FY20-21 Budget Ordinance. What is the meaning here? Why is she not making a motion but asking the Chairman?
Chairman Gooch sought Georgana Kicinski’ s motion on the floor for reconsideration the FY 20-21 Budget Ordinance. Motion offered first by Georgana Kicinski and seconded by Ed Mims. extremely unclear - what is going on here?
Tim Karan- Is the motion on the table to reconsider or to adopt?
Attorney Jim Wrenn- I want to know what the motion means and what reconsideration means, are we considering another date? What are the instructions of the Board? Chairman should not have let this get to this confusing point.
Georgana Kicinski- I made the motion, since last night one of our members changed their vote from a “Yes” to a “No” and he has explained that he doesn’t want a rate increase. Isn’t that right Mr. McLamb? Confusion continues. What is happening here? Is there not already a motion on the floor?
Kenneth McLamb- Yes, that is correct.
Georgana Kicinski- I wanted to find out if we could have another vote to possibly reconsider either approving the budget as is or going to a different budget with no rate increase. She should have made a motion to do what she is stating instead of just stating it!
Attorney Jim Wrenn- Yes, either you vote to approve the budget, or you make a motion to instruct the Executive Director to do a certain thing and bring back a consideration. You have to adopt a budget at some point.
Ed Mims- I seconded the motion (which motion?) and my interpretation of Commissioner Kicinski’ s motion to reconsider was based on what Mr. McLamb indicated. This budget should not include a rate increase and last night the Finance Committee briefly choose not to approve this budget, they would need time to go back and rework. So, to reconsider means, removing the rate increase after the Finance Committee reworks the budget and brings it back to the Board, that’s my interpretation. (there should not be “interpretations.” We need to know exactly what the motion is! Or Was!)
Tim Karan- The Finance Committee has made its recommendation and you have it before you. We are not going back to take up your ideas. The plea was made for other people to join the Finance Committee and Georgana took up the call. We’ve done our work. I’m not going to redo the work in a different way. Present your alternative or present your ideas, we’ve gone through 9 hours of meetings and gone through three different scenarios.
Ed Mims- There’s a motion on the floor, I call for the question.
Tim Karan- Can the motion be restated and what are we voting on please?
Georgana Kicinski- To reconsider the original vote of the Board that was approving the budget because one of the members changed their vote. (When and how changed what vote to what? What is the point here?)
Jimmy Gooch- My interpretation of what the members want is to pull out the rate increase and have it reconsidered by the budget committee on a quarterly basis, waiting to see what the outcome of the finances are and what the outcome of the money coming in from bills. What kind of interruptions are we going to have in cash flow, what kind of financial crunch are we going to be seeing? My interpretation of the general idea pull out the rate increase and go back to the fund balance. (When was this motion made?) (Whose motion is this? Where did he get this “interpretation?”)
Commissioner Kicinski withdrew her motion after discussion with Counsel. ?????????? Which motion did she withdraw?
Executive Director, Scott Schroyer- Please bring your attention to Item 7 on the agenda, FY20-21 Budget Public Hearing as presented, “The Executive Director recommends the SGWASA Board adopt the 2020-2021 Fiscal Year Budget as presented, including the proposed schedule of rates, effective July 1, 2020.” This was the recommendation that came from me and that has not been taken up or moved on in any direction by the Board at this point.
Executive Director, Scott Schroyer- Screenshare the Adopted Annual Budget Ordinance Projected Revenues and Expenditures for FY July 1, 2020 – June 30, 2021 with the Board. Section 1: the water sales and sewer use charges were estimated using a revenue increase of 0% of water 0% for sewer and $173,525 for capital effective July 1, 2020. Transfer from Fund Balance Appropriate $1,261,540.
Ed Mims sought a motion approve/adopt the Budget with zero rate increase with the caveat that the Finance Committee review the finances every 2-3 months to keep a watch on funds and if necessary, come back with a rate increase in the future and seconded by Kenneth McLamb.
Georgana Kicinski made a recommendation to add another person to the Finance Committee and seconded my Kenneth McLamb. ??????????? (What is this? Is it a motion and why here? Seems to be a recommendation. Why didn’t the chairman stop this!
• Executive Director reads the FY 20-21 Budget Ordinance July 1, 2020 – June 30, 2021 with zero % water rate into record. Water rate only? No water rate at all? What did he really mean?
Chairman sought motion to adopt the Budget Ordinance. Motion was voted on by the Board and motion passed unanimously. Was this the Mims motion?
IV. Comments from the Executive Director
Thank you, Mr. Chairman and Board Members, I look forward to meeting with the Finance Committee in the coming months and having further discussions with the Board.
V. Comments from the SGWASA Attorney
No Comments
VI. Comments from Board Members:
Tim Karan – Commissioner Kicinski made a recommendation to expand the Finance Committee, are we going to take this up and add a member, do we have a volunteer, or are we 10 going to put that on our next agenda? Finance Committee is the planning committee for the organization.
Bill Birdsong – No comments
Jimmy Gooch- Thank Goodness we finally came to a consensus, hopefully we will have a recovery and I am looking forward to having a meeting face-to-face. I want to thank everyone!
Ed Mims – Thank you, I appreciate the detail and the hard work that was done. I see where the Executive Director only $2,500 authority have, for the size of this agency and the issues we have I was wondering if $2,500 is sufficient. I’m willing to have the Board to weigh in on that at a later meeting.
Georgana Kicinski- Thank you Chairman and everybody for calling in today. We heard you all loud and clear. We may come out of this just fine without a rate increase.
Kenneth McLamb – Thank you Commissioner Karan and Kicinski for working on this, I had to vote the way my Town wants me to vote, who puts me in Office.
Adjournment
A motion was made to adjourn the May 13, 2020 continuance meeting, first by Kenneth McLamb and seconded by Commissioner Kicinski.
Respectfully Submitted by: Uvonka Mercer, Secretary
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
May 12th and 13th Budget Meetings for the 2020-2021 Budget year
(the no rate increase budget meetings with a proposed rate increase!)
Confusing right! No rate increase for July 1st when the new budget year starts. But then a rate increase is possible!
So no rate increase until there has to be a rate increase! Good Job SGWASA!
The final motion by Board Member Ed Mims at the May SGWASA Meeting was "to adopt the budget ordinance without the rate increase, but with the stipulation that a rate increase could be revisited later in the fiscal year." That fiscal year starts on July 1st. So you could have a rate increase.
Most likely, sooner or later you will get a rate increase. In my guess, sooner than later. And the longer we wait in this economy, I'll bet the larger it gets. With a horrid economy coming at us, anything can happen with SGWASA rates in the future. Maybe the near future. All kinds of rate increases!
The straight truth is that SGWASA is our legal water authority and we are their main source of revenues; we must pay whatever it takes to allow them to provide water and sewer services. If the systems have major infrastructure failures, we MUST pay for it. And that means if they take out a huge loan to pay for new repairs, that will be passed on to us in fees.
They currently have large debts from previous loans which are almost 30% of their total expenses. It is unlikely that state laws would allow them to borrow more money. So we could even get a lien placed on each one of us to pay a chunk of money to keep them afloat.! That can be done by a state government group in the Treasury Department called the Local Government Commission. It is in charge of SGWASAs survival. https://www.nctreasurer.com/state-and-local-government-finance-division/local-government-commission
So we did not get any real solution from the May SGWASA Meeting! Was the "press release" by SGWASA on that meeting really honest?
______________________________________________________________________________
April 14, 2020 SGWASA Meeting Agenda
(new budget vote for 2020-2021 budget first took place here: details soon)
Click here for Agenda
Click here to see Video of Meeting
Go to this calendar link, then to April, click on the April 12th meeting - click on the video link which is zoom_0.mp4
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
SGWASA for Dummies
This below is meant as an introduction to SGWASA for New Residents and involves a discussion one of us actually had with the new SGWASA Chairman, James Gooch during the week of February 16th, 2020.
___________________________________
February 19th:
Hello Jimmy:
We wanted to congratulate you on your election to the Chairmanship of SGWASA. Best of luck with the many difficult decisions on keeping the utility up and running and changing its image and trust relationship, etc.
We certainly have been some of the heavy critics of SGWASA, but I think that has done some good in trying to be more realistic with the utilities’ financial and infrastructure problems, the historic causes, and occasional apathy from the utility. I believe SGWASAs critics helped by putting reality on the table and have made it easier for all of us to work together realistically and face the serious problems.
The Board must not isolate itself and pit itself against the customers.
We suspect and hope you will be a better communicator, a more straight forward “seeker of truth” with the customers and in getting these attitudes instilled into the rest of the Board. I’m optimistic that the new Board Members will also get to the bottom of seeing and analyzing the utility’s problems and get on with the best solutions. As we have always thought and stated, the problems of the utility appear terribly limited and are going to need some unique thinking to solve in order to sustain a working and viable utility. Customers have also realized they can put new members onto the SGWASA Board.
We understand a new web site is coming soon so please try to make that the beginning of a new relationship between SGWASA and its customers. I will try to join in with helping that work.
Best of luck again:
Some Citizens of Granville County
___________________________________
February 21
Jimmy: Of course, in our earlier note, we meant to say that the “solutions to SGWASAs problems are terribly limited.” Not the problems. The problems are not at all limited.
Mr. Smoak, the former SGWASA Board Chair, was once asked at a County meeting if SGWASA had a five-year plan. Mr. Smoke answered that they certainly had no five year plan and had little flexibility for planning in general; “we take thing as they happen, as they come, day to day.” We are quite sure that is very, very close to quotations of Mr. Smoak.
To us, that attitude certainly seems like problem number one at SGWASA.
We do hope our harsh judgements of SGWASA problems, and its future, are proved wrong.
Again, best of luck to you.
p.s. You have often loudly promoted that customers come to meetings.When one considers that customers can only give a 3 minute statement, without receiving any answers to questions they might ask, most would get very little out of attending meetings. Customers would also need to study the agenda before hand and investigate complex issues on the agenda just to follow what was happening at the meetings.
This is why better communication is needed regarding what is going on at SGWASA. You need press releases, you need an excellent web site to explain what has just happened at meetings and you need at least occasionally information coming with the monthly bills. You have an ED and seven Board Members; all who receive financial remuneration. You have office people.. We should be saturated with information with all that investment. What are all these people doing? Certainly, you can train someone to the web site which I understand is to be soon modernized? Some of us argue that the meetings should be televised on a local network or minimally recorded on video and archived on your web site.
How about a good Zoom account that allows recording of the complete meeting?
Can SGWASA get into the 21st Century?
Some Citizens of South Granville
______________________________________________________
February 22
Hello:
My understanding of the history of SGWASA is, it was set up to respond to the needs of the municipalities and not lead the municipalities by setting areas where water & sewer would be installed and expect the municipalities to grow in those designated areas. With that said, past leadership looked to the municipalities to do mid and long term planning and include SGWASA in their planning. Before Lindsay retired he recognized the need for SGWASA to form it’s own plans and started the foundation for the plans we are currently working on.
Scott [executive director of SGWASA] is currently working with vendors on the website to incorporate much of what you and others have been asking for and more.
I will continue at ask people to attend the meetings because people taking time to show up and speak is the still the most effective way to get the attention of board members and staff. My opinion is based on the time Mr. Mayo had over 85 people show up for a meeting. Do you remember when this happened?
Jimmy Gooch
_____________________________________________________
February 23
Jimmy: Thank you for your thoughts. We could have a long discussion on your view that customers attending meetings is the best way to “get the attention of the Board.”
The people of Creedmoor have “gotten the Boards attention” by voting out 3 city board members. Seeing people buy bottled water is another way to get everyone's attention. And certainly people telling others on Facebook not to move to this area because of water related issues is another way to get the Boards attention. And then people who say they are moving out of the area because of SGWASA or wish they had never moved here in the first place; they get the Boards attention.
There are many ways to get SGWASA Board members attention. Let’s not look just at one hour a month meeting.
Best of Luck. You do have a good background for the chairman job and we are with you but you will need to think broadly and with new, creative ideas.
Some Citizens of Granville County
________________________________________________________
February 23
Jimmy:
By the way, we do remember the special SGWASA meeting four years ago organized by John Mayo which had 85 people in attendance. Some of us attended.
But John Mayo has told us that not very much changed after that meeting. The Board Chairman made a 'list' of complaints, but it was purely for the media and cameras. That is why Mayo increased his advocacy for a stronger and better SGWASA. Also, Duke Energy or Spectrum do not require their customers to attend a Board meeting just to register a complaint. That is not usually what a Board handles.
We need a 'real time' web-based manner to register complaints and have violations, etc. posted, much like Nextdoor, where one can gather info immediately. Not to mention all the Board can do is note the complaint, not resolve it. One could argue that the “attendance concept” is just a way the Board justifies its existence.
Click here for a link to a news summary of the meeting four years ago.
Some Citizens of South Granville
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Another SGWASA Rate Increase Coming in 2020?
In 2019 SGWASA raised its charges to customers by a significant amount. We shall soon post here, a comparison of the current SGWASA rates with other water and sewer companies in the state. A UNC group is compiling that information. The 2019 rate increase was stated as being needed because the Federal Prison System in Butner was undergoing a "water conservation" program that would reduce income to SGWASA. About 5000 people live and work at this prison system.
However, a recent question from a SGWASA Board Member at a regularly scheduled meeting, now suggests that this prison system is still undergoing some kind of water conservation measures that might result in more rate increases. At least that is what a SGWASA Board Member thinks.
At the November 2019 SGWASA Meeting, SGWASA Board Member Edgar Smoak asked, "if the decrease in revenue from the prison complex in Butner was the final of the changes at the Federal Prison." Our SGWASA rate hike last year was stated as being caused by the decrease in revenue from the prison."
Here is the item from the minutes of the SGWASA November Meeting where Smoak asks the question: Note the quotes please.
“Edgar Smoak asked, if the decrease in revenue was the final of the changes at the Federal Prison.” Richard Balmer SGWASA Financial Officer, answered Mr. Smoak and “stated that it was the result of the changes, but the Federal Prison will still be starting with the sewer meter which will create additional decreases.”
These quotes from the November minutes are a bit vague and we wondered if it meant that the meter being installed at the prison meant that this would cause the prison complex to decrease its sewer bill and cause another rate hike increase for the other customers..
So we emailed Mr. Balmer and asked questions about the meaning of the question and answers from him. He sent my questions to Mr. Scott Schroyer, the executive director of SGWASA and he answered my questions in an email to me. My questions to Mr. Balmer and the answers from Mr. Schroyer are below. You can interpret them.
Our question one: I assume the meter is to measure sewer water leaving the prison system and going to SGWASA. Thus, allowing separate charges; one for water and one for sewer?
Answer from Mr. Schroyer: The sanitary sewer meter measures the sanitary sewer volume leaving the prison and entering the SGWASA sanitary sewer collection system. Thus, SGWASA will now be able to measure and bill accordingly for both the water and sewer volumes.
Our question two: Is that how institutions are set up with SGWASA?
Answer from Mr. Schroyer: Most of SGWASA’s non-residential customers are not metered separately for water and sewer. The prison previously had a single meter being used for water and sewer billing. The prison recently had a separate sewer meter installed.
Our question three: The implication being that previous loss of revenue was for water use without consideration for how much sewer water they were producing?
Answer from Mr. Schroyer: The previous revenue loss projections were based on the projected usage reductions from the water conservation program implemented at the prison. However, SGWASA staff did evaluate potential reductions in the sanitary sewer revenue, as the sanitary sewer fees are based on a water consumption.
Our question four: So now a meter for sewer water will give them a precise measurement and cut the cost to them?
Answer from Mr. Schroyer: The sanitary sewer meter will provide SGWASA and the prison with an accurate measurement of the volume that is leaving the facility; the cost is relative to the usage.
Our question five: And what percent change in revenues might SGWASA expect?
Answer from Mr. Schroyer: With the meter just recently installed, it is too early to determine the impact on revenue due to the lack of billing data. However, SGWASA staff is monitoring this item closely to evaluate the effects, positive or negative, on the revenues.
--------------------
We see some strange statements in the above answers from Mr. Schroyer. First, he states that the rate increase of last year was calculated not on actual loss of revenue to SGWASA but that "the previous revenue loss projections were based on the projected usage reductions from the water conservation program implemented at the prison." Some kind of guess-work,not actual loss of revenue? This appears unscientific and not based on actual good engineering or financial revenue data. Guesswork? Did they raise our rates based on wild guesswork?
Second, why is the Prison System putting in new meters to measure outflow of water to SGWASA? How could the water going into the system differ significantly from the outgoing sewer water? Do they suspect water leaks? Do they use water in some fashion that it does not move back out into the sewer system?
One might think that Mr. Schroyer would be meeting with the Director of the Federal Prison System and have better information for us? But people who have worked at the Prison say things like this: "People from the prison won't discuss the meter issue with Schroyer. They have mandates that come from Congress they are required to follow. All federal prisons are required to pursue efforts to go as green as possible per Congress...who controls their funding. That's the reason for the water conservation effort, as well as the huge expanse of solar panels. Schroyer can't do anything about that."
Mr. Schroyer is a new SGWASA Director and has now been there for six months. How do you think he is doing in that position? Contact him with questions. See his contact info at the SGWASA Site.
We should all stay on top of this issue to be sure we understand what is going on. Ask your SGWASA representative from your town what that facts are in regard to this issue so they will keep you informed. We will soon post updates on SGWASA members contact info. New SGWASA Board Members have been appointed from Creedmoor.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________
July 2019--SGWASA Hires New Executive Director
The SGASA Board has hired a new Executive Director who will assume his position on August 1st, 2019. His name is Scott Schroyer and his most recent position was Director of the Sarasota County, FL Water and Sewer System. He left that position in April of 2019.
Below see some information surrounding his departure from the Florida position and some editorials for customers
New Executive Director Information-Part 1
New Executive Director Information-Part 2
See Editorials Welcoming Mr. Schroyer
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Remember: SGWASA Board Representatives from Your Town are in Charge of SGWASA!
There are no mysterious people with authority at SGWASA! Click here to see that the Board has all legal authority of administration and hiring and firing! Don't miss Article V of that document.
The original Board hired the one and only ever Executive Director in 2005 and he is still there but retiring in June 2018 (see below). He probably could have been fired for dereliction of duty having done very little over the 13 years he was there to improve and maintain the water and sewer plants. Plant equipment is falling apart and will cost millions to fix and replace. And numerous water contaminant violations have occurred since 2005. They are in debt up to their necks-- $54 million! No long term planing! Those are just a few of their problems. Something wrong at SGWASA wouldn't you say!
The United States is a Democracy and SGWASA is a Public Organization created by the County and Incorporated by the State. You and I need to correct this problem fast.
Communicate with your Board Members and Vote them Out if they do not get SGWASA managed and functioning properly. They need to determine how their $53 million dollar debt will be handled. Look over this web site to see other problems related to SGWASA. You may decide, as many of us have, that SGWASA must be replaced with a new entity; perhaps it must be taken over by the State or County. The Board should be eliminated and replaced with top-notch personnel with high level of knowledge and experience in engineering and management in the water and sewer plant utility area. Think about these ideas and please discuss this with your friends and neighbors.
See the names and emails of your SGWASA Board Members at the bottom of this page
______________________________________________________________________________________________________
Some Links to Key Media Pieces on our SGWASA Problems
Cancer Rate- South Granville-ABC-March 1, 2016
Dirty Water-South Granville, ABC-March 9, 2016
South Granville Schools Concerned about Drinking Water-CBS- September 25, 2017
Dirty Water Issue remains in Granville-ABC-November 5, 2017
WRAL Investigates Drinking Water Problems in Central NC-WRAL-February 11, 2019
Water Infrastructure Puts Some NC Communities at Risk-WUNC-February 15, 2019
Frustrated Granville Residents continue Crusade for Clean Water ABC 11 News -August 14, 2019
_________________________________________________________________________
January 24, 2019 - -SGWASA Board and Engineers Argue for Butner-Creedmoor Area Becoming a Grand Thriving Metropolitan Area and a Shining City on the Hill: Cost to Us? Another $47 Million!
At a most amazing January 15, SGWASA Meeting, a hired group of engineers presented a most astounding construction program to cost us 40 million dollars on top of the 35 million that we already owe to banks and investors!
A quick summary of the plan is to not only "fix" this sewer system but EXTEND IT to allow thousands and thousands of new homes to be built. In other words, a major, major growth program for our area. The discussion at this meeting, if it can be called that,was the most absurd, irrational piece of propaganda for "developers," promoting development. We recommend you listen to that meeting which is available on audio files. Listen to the last part of the meeting here:
It seems quite clear that that idea is untenable relative to cost and the current “entropy” of the whole system. Entropy is the word physicists use for "falling apart," "out of useful energy," "getting old and cold and useless and worn out." Customers now buy bottled water due to bad odors and tastes and SGWASA does not seem capable of fixing that problem! They do not even seem to want to talk about it. And on top of this they talk of another 40 million for grandiose plans? These 40 million dollar plans are for the sewer system; soon I suppose they will tell us of another 40 million is needed to fix the drinking water system!
An engineering company, hired by SGWASA, is currently getting close to finishing design plans for the water plant which will cost us about 12 million; it is currently presented as 10 million for construction and 1 million for the design. With the design still being worked on, and the fact that this water plant construction has not even gone out yet for construction bidding, we can expect the total cost will regularly rise. See more on this in the last paragraph below.
As we have been saying here, things have been falling apart for 80 years at SGWASA and will continue to do so. The cost of keeping up with it can barely be maintained but yet they want to expand the whole construction plan to create some “great shining city upon the hill.” Please: let’s get real here. In many places both our water and sewer distribution systems will be getting old and need replacing and I hear nothing about that entropy. I’m talking about the pipes that bring us water and take away our sewage; a massive system of pipes.
We need some honest, independent engineers to study some realistic options. These are critical times for a critical look at a variety of options. Those options should include (1) how to maintain our water and sewer system as a small local system for our current populations, assuming low growth or even declining growth and (2) more radical sounding solutions such as the feasibility of us hooking up with the Northern Kerr Lake Regional Water System. The latter possibility requires a parallel solution for our sewer system. Relative to (1) if we do not build subdivisions, we will not grow, period; problem solved. Could we then slowly rebuild and maintain a small local water and sewer system? Even then, where does the money come from to do that. We are in debt for about 35 million now and most likely, could not, should not, borrow more. Relative to (2), once we have a new water source, we would need to either rebuild our sewer system, or build a new one. A variety of new ideas must be explored.
Rumors have it that the cities severed by SGWASA will be asked raise general tax rates on its citizens in order to provide funding to SGWASA for expansion of the water and sewage systems to allow more growth and development. This would no doubt require a Voter Referendum. However, if the water and sewer systems deteriorate to a certain point where providing the services becomes impossible, a state agency can step in and force financial levies on all customers. No choice there; it is the law. So you decide what to call our predicament: "Rock and a Hard Place?" "On-coming Train Wreck?" But certainly the "Shining City on the Hill" ain't coming soon.
Please consider these ideas that we are trying to present in a rational, logical framework. Express your ideas at meetings, letters to the editor, phone calls, emails, social networks and talking to your friends and neighbors.
The time has come for quiet, serious consideration of new ideas.
The idea of growth, growth, growth, for the sake of growth' just to keep the “developers” happy is folly.
“Sooner or later everyone sits down to a banquet of consequences.” Robert Lewis Stevenson.
“Anyone who believes exponential growth can go on forever in a finite world is either a madman or an economist.” Kenneth Boulding
"Growth for the sake of growth, is the idelogy of cancer cells" Edward Abbey
p.s. There is a Hazen and Sawyer engineer study still in the blueprint stage that was started a year ago and will not even get finished in the blueprint stage until sometime this year, 2019! The costs on that continue to rise; both the blueprint/design as well as the cost of the actual building of the infrastructure from the blueprints. As of April 11, 2019, those estimated construction costs are over 9 million dollars and climbing. Then the construction needs to be started and finished. Years go by and things fall apart faster than we can keep up with them.The actual costs of the blueprints has also risen and is now almost $1 million. If those blueplrints are finished this year, does SGWASA have the cash to pay that? And where will they get the 10 or 12 million for the actual construction? And when will this construction for modernization begin?
Part of this Hazen and Sawyer construction is to once and for all bring the water plant up to speed to correct the proper removal of the serious contaminants for which we received contaminant violation notices for years; the disinfectant byproducts problem. So that contaminant removal process has not yet been automated and properly configured to modern and properly functioning standards. Much of the work done in the SGWASA plants is manual and not automated. allowing for all kinds of errors. And years go by and things fall apart. Do you detect a management problem in all of this? SGWASA is a monopoly and we can all see the results of that problem.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
January 17, 2019 - - Why Does SGWASA Water Often Have Bad Odors and Bad Tastes?
Large numbers of people in southern Granville buy bottled water because of bad water tastes and odors. And sometimes strange color changes. Have you ever wondered why? We do. With the expense of buying bottled water and then paying a regular high fee to SGWASA, this is a serious problem in southern Granville. Many complain of the bad taste and odors of SGWASA water and complaints to SGWASA often results in --- nothing.
Some dangerous contaminants that can be in our water are regulated by the Primary National Primary Drinking Water Regulations and are legally enforceable standards and treatment techniques that apply to public water systems. Primary standards and treatment techniques protect public health by limiting the levels of contaminants in drinking water. There are standards for 90 of these chemicals, one being the disinfectant byproducts that SGWASA has struggled to control. These standards are set by the EPA and are legally enforceable by the state.
In addition, EPA has established National Secondary Drinking Water Regulations that set what they call non-mandatory water quality standards for 15 contaminants. There are "secondary maximum contaminant levels (SMCLs) for these 15 contaminants. They are established as guidelines to assist public water systems in managing their drinking water for aesthetic considerations, such as taste, color, and odor. "These contaminants are not considered to present a risk to human health at the SMCL." Note carefully that that quote from the EPA website says: "AT THE SMCL." So if we are at or below the allowed maximum contaminant level, these secondary contaminants are not considered a health risk. But what if the levels are above the allowed level? Are they saying they can be dangerous in that case? Clarification is needed on this. Are these secondary contaminants (note they are called "contaminants") a human health concern or are they not? And when?
At the recent January 15 SGWASA Meeting the former mayor of Creedmoor, Darryl Moss complained about sewer type odors in his home. And deterioration of some pieces of his sink. So some Board members launched into a "discussion" or what they thought was a discussion, of what might cause Mr. Moss's problem. It was a very unsatisfying and disappointing discussion and considering that large numbers of SGWASA customers complain of these odor and taste problems, it was a bit startling how the discussion by the Board was so unintelligent and uniformed.
The Board starting talking about the nature of the problem and what might have caused Mr. Mosses problem. It started with vague statements and we quote, "how water in the distribution system, if it is slowed or stopped for some time in the pipes, it goes bad." Not very scientific, correct? Then in order to think how to solve this, the Board discussed the common "flushing" technique wherein fire hydrants are opened to flush out the odors and/or contaminants. This is a common techniques for water authorities but the discussion got bogged down in how often this flushing should be done and what do other water authorities do in this regard. They guessed as to how often it should be done. No data in their heads for seriously starting to solve this problem and no experts present at this meeting for an intelligent discussion.. No science or engineering knowledge was discussed; no one had insight into the cause of bad odors and tastes and the discussion went nowhere. Very depressing to see our water authority Board have this "discussion." We have a monstrous problem regarding our water authority. The members of the Board were elected and we assume they are fine normal upstanding people of the community but "water authorities" they are not.
They could have spoken of "sewer gases" which are formed in water and sewage pipes by micro-organisms such as bacteria and mold. These microbes feed on organic matter in the water and pipes. The gases they release include such gases as hydrogen sulfide and methane which can smell like rotten eggs. Dissolved solids can cause a musty, earthy wood smell; Chlorine used to disinfect the water tastes and smells bad. It dries skin and hair, fades clothes (bleach is made of chlorine) and can dry out the rubber seals in appliances, shortening their lives; metallic tastes and smells from mercury, lead, arsenic and iron can seep into the water supply. Sometimes these sewer gases can seep into a house if the "water traps" in the sinks dry up. By definition, that is the function of the traps.
Why did our Board Members not have an intelligent discussion on this? Where were the experts to discuss this?
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
January 17, 2019 - - WRAL Television Investigates SGWASA
Collen Browder, Investigative Reporter, from WRAL spent over two hours recently with John Mayo and Frank McKay, doing an in -depth interview.
It was very detailed, and we were allowed to share quite a bit of information regarding SGWASA. John and I were both McKay and Mayo were surprised and impressed with the amount of time and consideration he awarded the matter. Even more significant, Browder agreed to make a return visit, either to a community meeting or possibly the next SGWASA Board meeting, depending on scheduling, etc.
Recently, Mayo also received an update from the Lead Attorney with the Southern Environmental Law Center, who has met with the State, and SGWASA. He shared they have two lobbyists in Washington, and an Epidemiologist he plans to contact regarding SGWASA and our situation. The epidemiologist is needed to explain the risks to us in certain water contaminants and to determine the causes of bad water odors and tastes, etc. We need the known and true health risks in this regard to be able to put the risks to us in proper context.
Of course SGWASA problems also include management, financial debt, poor planning and the infrastructure needs.
The WRAL segment will be aired in February, prefaced with 'promos' leading up to the time of airing.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
December 11, 2018 - - SGWASA Admits It Has Challenges; It Continues in Big Debt; and Southern Environmental Law Center Will Meet with the State Authorities and SGWASA This Month
Part I: SGWASA Admits It Has Big Challenges:
In a November 13th meeting with the County Environmental Affairs Committee (EAC), the temporary Director of SGWASA and two SGWASA Board Members discussed issues of water quality and financial stability with the EAC Members.
The EAC Board has the power to investigate, publicize and report to the Board of Commissioners any activities in Granville County involving threats to any land, water or air resources which are found by the Board to endanger or threaten to endanger the persons and property of citizens of the County. The Board serves as the “Eyes and Ears of the Board of Commissioners on any environmental issues. The Committee has 7 members, one from each County District. See who represents you on this Committee.
The meeting covered questions asked by EAC members and topics ranged from (1) the financial state of SGWASA relative to their high debt; (2) their thoughts on how they would finance new construction that is needed; (3) complaints they receive from customers on water quality; (4) long term plans; (5) how to file a complaint with SGWASA and (6) image and communication problems with customers.
The three SGWASA members repeatedly stated that they have serious challenges for the future. But they also stated that with so many current variables of debt, on-going engineering studies, construction that will be soon starting, changes at the Federal Prison, water and sewer capacities being maxed out, etc., that developing a long-term plan really can’t be done. In terms of water that has unpleasant taste or smell, they recommended customers use a home filter. They reviewed finances in the sense of what events and history accounted for the high debt of 54 million (the debt as of May 2018—see below) and indicated that in terms of this debt, they will just have to take events day by day and handle problems as they come along. The SGWASA staff reviewed the study done by Hazen and Sawyer Engineers regarding the old plants and the work of another engineering group studying the critical need for new sewer lines across route I-85. This work as well as work on pump stations which are needed in the system, will seriously limit housing development in the area until completed. Regarding customer complaints for water with odors and tastes and any other problems, they should call SGWASA at (919) 575-3367.
Part II: SGWASA Debt – A quick glance
The SGWASA fiscal year runs from July 1st to Jun 30th of each year. If you look at the SGWASA Budget summaries for the last three years one sees two large items that jump out at you.
-
The Yearly Total Revenue is always around $12 million
-
The Yearly Total amount paid on loans and bonds (debt service) is always around 4 million
A SGWASA May 8th, 2018 Meeting Agenda document indicates a debt of $39.9 million for Principal and $14.1 million for Interest; a total of 54 million. At 4 million a year pay off, that is 13.5 years. Obviously, we would need to get the exact figures from the banks and SGWASA to be more up to date for this month but that is a horrendous debt and the state will not allow SGWASA to borrow more money. Millions of dollars of engineering work is currently being put into blue-prints (see below). The study for those blue prints and their production cost about $200,000. The construction will certainly be at least 10 million (see that below). So how does one solve all these problems? Raise customer rates sky high? We need answers.
Part III: Costs Rise and Debt Continues
On December 2nd, 2018 Frank McKay of Creedmoor sent this note below, in quotes, to his SGWASA representatives, Mr. Wilkerson and Mr. Wilkins and also to the acting director of SGWASA Mr. Ayscue and Board Member Mr. Gooch (liaison person to public). Mr. McKay has not received any replies as of this date.
"To My SGWASA Board Members and Board Member Mr. Gooch: (copied to mayor Bobby Wheeler and other Creedmoor Commissioners)
Several questions please.
Reading this weeks BC News article on SGWASA I have several questions please. Perhaps one of you can give me some answers. I often talk with local citizens or write and post SGWASA topics so I will try hard to always have the facts directly from you folks for accuracy.
-
I have in front of me the Hazen and Sawyer Engineering Report (attached) entitled “DBP Reduction and SCADA Improvements at the SGWASA Water Treatment Plant.” It is dated December 2017. On the last page (37) is the estimate for the DBP and SCADA improvement work of $3.3 million. An article in the BC News states that Hazen & Sawyer had a previous figure of 8.7 million. I have forgotten what the other $5.4 million was for. Please tell me where I can find a report explaining the $5.4 million or send it to me. Thanks much. The BC News notes the current estimate for this construction is now $9.7 million and there are two more estimate periods as the plans get finalized.
-
The BC News article referenced above states you have set up a capital reserve fund for system development fees. Please explain what system development fees are. Who is paying those fees? It sounds like “developers” might be paying those fees. If so please give me some details as to what that means. Does that refer to builders who are now building subdivisions? If so, where will those fees come from in future relative to SGWASA having reached its capacity for allowing new subdivisions? Are these also collected on new houses built that are not subdivisions but simply houses built as “individual” houses on land in the SGWASA customer areas?
-
Does any of this above cause you anxiety in the sense of a project of $9.7 million, no doubt reaching over 10 or 12 million when we get to the final, actual cost? Where will this 10 to 12 million come from? Your current debt prevents you from borrowing or issuing bonds. Customer fees and grants would seem to be your only source for funding? What do you think will be the effect on people wanting to live in Southern Granville if water fees go even higher? Are you concerned about the timeline? It would seem that the earliest we could expect this work to be completed is 2020 because the dollar estimates in the report are 2020 dollar estimates. We know it will likely be later than 2020; time lines for these complex projects are always delayed from original estimates and their cost also rises. Each month that goes by leaves the $3.3 million DBP Project noted above as only a concept on paper. I worry about how this will affect water quality. The water plant procedure for reducing disinfectant byproduct contaminants obviously remains in its primitive, manual state.
-
I’m told Mr. Dancy, Utility Director at your company, had to bring H&S engineers back to help him after Mr. Mize retired in order to control and adjust some problems regarding the disinfectant byproduct reduction process. I’m was told by a SGWASA Board Member that this DBP process is still very manual, inadequate and tentative -- so it will remain that way until this work is finished in 2020 or beyond! That shows the critical need to have the DBP reduction process automated and modernized. Any anxiety about that? Is that why you hired Mr. Mize back part-time? To provide engineering skills to your company? I know we have had compliance with DBPs recently – please don’t review that, but what I’ve just said gives me no confidence that we can keep that process modern and sound until it is modernized. Is Mr. Dancy an engineer with an engineering degree? Is he certified in some water and sewer functions? Does your search for a new Director include that he or she have an engineering degree?
I’d appreciate your opinions on the questions. Thanks very much.
Frank McKay
Creedmoor"
Part IV: Southern Environmental Law Center Meets with North Carolina Water Authorities and with SGWASA
Below in quotes, is a Letter to the Editor dated today by John Mayo of Butner.
"During my campaign aimed at SGWASA, I had a conversation with a State official, regarding SGWASA's performance. That person stated, "they felt SGWASA needed the push I exerted", to which I responded, " why should an entity charged with providing a product to the public, require a push, it should be their priority." That statement, however, revealed one of the problems with SGWASA....they had been operating with little or no accountability.
Their meetings, not well attended, allowed them to slip into a somewhat 'complacent' state of being. and they wrongly 'assumed' everyone was 'OK' with their product and performance. Residents weren't, and now they are 'puzzled', and annoyed by all the attention they are receiving, blaming myself and Frank McKay for “spreading rumors and misinformation.” I recently reminded one Board member, neither McKay or myself pump smelly or discolored water into anyone’s home.
Now, two years later, you see Board members attending meetings, other than their own, more interaction between Board members and SGWASA customers. and their Board meeting discussions are now focused on their entire operation. Mind you, it took television exposure, petitioning a federal agency, numerous newspaper articles, and social media pressure to get to this point, and yet, they still maintain their position that "things are not that bad", so I contacted the SELC, an organization composed of 24 attorneys who fight for citizen’s rights.
The Southern Environmental Law Center is now scheduled to meet with the State, and SGWASA, and there is hope that something positive for customers will result from the meeting. At the very least, it sends a message to SGWASA that they are now being held more accountable, and that means better service for all; hopefully not too late, but better late than never." John Mayo, Butner.
________________________________________________________________________
October 11, 2018 - -Southern Environmental Law Center Requests Documents from SGWASA---
Contaminant Violations and Customer Complaints
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________
October 10, 2018 -- SGWASA Board Members--Several are "Founding Fathers;" We Need New Members
Click here and take a look at this document. It is the Articles of Incorporation for SGWASA dated January 2005. It is a legal document submitted by Granville County to the state. It creates SGWASA. So that is the first point. The County created SGWASA and that no doubt has many legal implications. Does it flat out mean the County has full control and responsibility for SGWASA? Good Question.
Second and main point to make here is the first seven SGWASA Board Members are listed in this 13 year old document.
Those Board Members were: Edgar Smoak, Tim Karan, Ronald Alligood, Jack Day, Tom Lane, R. David Currin and Kent Ray.
Notice something interesting! Two of them are still there! After 13 years!
Current SGWASA Board Members are: Edgar Smoak, Tim Karan, Bill Birdsong, Jimmy Gooch, Herman Wilkerson, Archer Wilkins, Kenneth McLamb.
So for thirteen years these two gentlemen have served, maybe on and off the SGWASA Board, and both are now County Commissioners representing the County at SGWASA. We suggest we need some new ideas, some new brains some new blood, some more diversity on the SGWASA Board as well as the County Board.
These two gentlemen are both up for re-election this year as County Commissioners. Mr. Smoak will be on your ballot on November 6th if you live in Granville District 7 and Mr. Karan will be on your ballot if you are in district 6. We recommend you vote for the new individuals running for those County Commissioner slots.
Hoping to replace Mr. Smoak in District 7 is Ms. Nicole Tatum. (see her website here)
Hoping to replace Mr. Tim Karan in District 6 is Dr. Lahoma Smith Romocki (see her web site here)
If you do not know your County District and/or would like to see your sample ballot for the November 6th election Go to: https://vt.ncsbe.gov/RegLkup/ which is the State Board of Elections. Fill in your information and click Search; it will pull up your name. Click on your name and it will pull up your detailed page with your districts and personal info. Go to the bottom under Sample Ballots: On the far left under “Election” see the “11/06/2018 GENERAL line. On the far right on that same line click on the link that starts with “G.” This will bring up your sample ballot which you can print or save.
p.s. Please note in the 2005 Articles of Incorporation that you look at above, that the lawyer involved in that document is still the lawyer for SGWASA now! Thirteen years later! And he is also the lawyer for the towns of Creedmoor and Butner as well as for Granville and Person County and last but not least, he is also the lawyer for the Kerr Tar Council of Governments! We are running out of exclamation points. Do you see a problem with that? What could go wrong with that?
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
October 6, 2018 - - SGWASA is Celebrating; We Don't Believe There Is Any Reason To Do That!
SGWASA has been out of compliance for many quarters since 2013 for disinfectant byproducts water contamination and for many other years in the last 25 years when this standard was different. Compliance simply means the water is at safe levels for the contaminant. As of October 3d, 2018,SGWASA is at least in temporary compliance for these EPA regulations from the period running from the last quarter water sample of 2017 through the 3rd Quarter of 2018. No congratulations or celebrations are due for this recent LEGALLY REQUIRED compliance; a sigh of relief is all that is necessary and lots of hope they can keep these contaminants out of our water. Compliance for contaminant regulations is a national health standard! Not something to be proud of when you are just STARTING TO SOLVE THE PROBLEM (see below why we are not in anyway finished with making this compliance final). Compliance protects us from cancer and other maladies.
The technical chemical change that corrected the problem, at least for awhile, is a well known one and the new chemical has been known and available for years; it is not rocket science or quantum physics! Other effective and efficient water authorities in the nation were aware of the solution and used it years ago. SGWASA has been one of a few water authorities in the state that were in repeated violation. That data is available. Hence we certainly should ask why it has taken so long to start getting back into compliance? SGWASA seems quite proud of itself about being in compliance for this particular contaminant; that pride is a bad sign. It indicates a weak awareness and understanding of their real, legal responsibilities for water health standards as well as a certain kind of incompetence in not knowing where to find the knowledge or expertise. The original executive director was an engineer and should have had the knowledge, talent and confidence to solve this problem earlier. He was there for 13 years when older DBP rules were in effect and when new ones came into effect! Did he not read the engineering journals? Did he not go to technical meetings or get technical training? Where was he and the senior management and planning people on this problem? Seven Board Members should have demanded progress far earlier.
We should note that engineers are still designing a final, modern technical system, using computer, etc. to automate this new process for removing much of this particular contaminant.The point being, that these plans, are just the plans, and won't be ready until the Spring of 2019.Then the actual building of the DBP contaminant removal unit can proceed. Years go by.
If your doctor performed a certain routine medical procedure on you, and one day said "We finally got this procedure correct today," you would be astounded.
So the SGWASA "pride" is misplaced. We do not pat them on the back; that would be absurd. We blame poor upper level engineers and management persons for this mismanagement and incompetence; they did not created long term plans and were not proactive in solving their massive problems. We do not blame workers who do the hard physical work of running the plants. Those workers, and also office personnel, do fine work and are pleasant and courteous people.
Please note the retired Executive Director is now back as an advisor to SGWASA!
____________________________________________________________________________________________-_______________
September 15, 2018 -- Legal Conflict of Interest at SGWASA that Affects You
Suppose you are suing someone in court; you are the plaintiff in the jargon and the person you are suing is the defendant.
What would you think if your lawyer for this case told you he or she also decided to be the defense lawyer for the same case! He or she wants to represent both you and the people you are suing in court! You would tell him or her to go jump in the lake because that would be a serious conflict of interest and ludicrous.
But guess what: that is exactly what has happened and is happening at SGWASA relative to extensive and critical legal dealings between your town and the county. We are talking about you, your money, your home values, the quality of your water and your other interests being properly represented in those critical issues.
SGWASA was formed back in 2005 and final deeding of all utility property was finalized in 2007. You can imagine all the complex legal negotiations that were made between the State, the County, SGWASA and Butner, the town in which our water and sewer plants originated. So with those original formation agreements with Butner and all subsequent agreements with Lyon Station and Cozart Sanitary Districts, Stem and Creedmoor, you can imagine all the profound decisions that were made and sums of money negotiated. For example, Butner received an agreement to receive $500,000 a year for 20 years and Creedmoor received about ten million for its water and and sewer infrastructure. The Board needed bylaws to be written, rates for customers needed to be decided, builders of homes needed their charges calculated. In others words, critical legal decisions had to be made between SGWASA, you, your town, and the county and others.
The last SGWASA Executive Director, the one and only, stated that SGWASA was in a critical transition. Although the definition of that transition needs a lot of examination, we know we have huge legal and political decisions to make soon that determine your fees to SGWASA, the quality of your water and no doubt the value of your property. We are talking about the huge debt held by SGWASA, the deteriorating water and sewer plants, the hunt for a new Director, and the halt to local development because SGWASA is now out of sewer and water capacity.
So guess what! During all of these past critical legal events -- and now the described upcoming events -- the towns SGWASA supplies, the county and SGWASA itself, and even other entities associated with local water rules and regulations, ARE ALL REPRESENTED BY THE SAME LAWYER.!
,
He is Mr. James C. Wrenn Jr.
Mr. John Mayo of Butner asked Mr. Wrenn in June of this year, if he represented other local government entities other than SGWASA. Here is a quote, in red font text, in the email back from Mr. Wrenn on June 3rd, 2018:
Mr. Mayo—
You sent my legal assistant Mary Denny an e-mail on Friday, June 1, 2018. You asked if I represent the following entities. I have listed the entities below as you listed them and I have put my response out to the side.
-
Butner—Yes
-
SGWASA—Yes
-
Granville County—Yes
-
Kerr Tar Council of Governments—Yes, I represent the Kerr-Tar Regional Council of Governments
-
Person County—I represent Person County with respect to its involvement in the regional stormwater utility.
This certainly appears to be a serious conflict of interest to us! How can Mr. Wrenn make independent decisions, the best decisions for you and your town if he also represents all the other government groups ? All the other groups he represents for the same issues will have conflicting goals and interests! Do you suppose SGWASA might now find itself in deep trouble, along with potential danger to you, your money, your town, and your property, because from its inception it has had a lawyer with a severe Conflict of Interest and you were not properly protected? And no doubt you won't be protected in the future!
Perhaps SGWASA needs a new lawyer and your town, which should be independently protecting you, might need one also!
See a statement by Mr. Mayo on this very subject made at a SGWASA Meeting in June.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________
August 3rd, 2018 -- 30 NC Sites Found with Polluted Water -- Includes SGWASA
Ten harmful contaminants were found in the water supplies in 30 North Carolina towns and water providers, according to a report released by the Environmental Working Group, or EWG, an independent nonprofit organization that released a detailed account of the contaminants. See their report here. Their list,not surprisingly, includes Southern Granville Water and Sewer Authority.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
August 2nd, 2018 - -Endorsements for the November 6th, 2018 Election; NC Assembly and Local Candidates Who Will Help Us Build a Strong, Sound Water Authority in Which We Can Have Confidence
We endorse these individuals for the stated elected positions:
For NC House of Representatives, District 002: Darryl Moss (See his FaceBook page. Be sure to ask him how he will: (1) solve the SGWASA "Problem;" (2) get clean water that is not at one of the highest customer costs in the state; (3) get SGWASA out of their 52 million $$ debt and tell us how did they get so deep in debt; (4) get their water and sewer plants modernized; (5) determine how the SGWASA customers can gain confidence in their water authority; (6) find out why huge numbers of SGWASA customers buy bottled water; (7)give us assurance that SGWASA will not send us water that is contaminated; (8) help us find a new SGWASA Executive Director who can communicate to his or her customers, stay on top of modern technology and hire excellent and talented supervisors; (9) promote the idea of SGWASA hiring a lawyer who does not also work for any of the cities served, nor the county or other water associated agencies in the area.(we are concerned here with massive conflict of interests over the years, now and in the future); (10) determine how southern Granville will succeed in maintaining good business activity, good home values, and good taxes for schools, etc., with the cessation of growth in southern Granville due to SGWASA reaching water and sewer capacities and unable to borrow money. And raising its rates. (These 10 questions will be seen by the southern Granville community in a letter to the editor of the Butner-Creedmoor News.
For Granville County Commissioner, District 6: LaHoma Smith Romocki: (See her Web page and ask her the same questions above)
For Granville County Commissioner, District 7: Nicole Tatum (same questions for her)
See the editorial page on this site for more details. See Editorial number 8
Get your Sample Ballot for your District (below):
Go to: https://vt.ncsbe.gov/RegLkup/ which is the State Board of Elections. Fill in your information and click Search; it will pull up your name. Click on your name and it will pull up your detailed page. Go to the bottom under Sample Ballots: On the far left under “Election” see the “11/06/2018 GENERAL line. On the far right on that same line click on the link that starts with “G.” This will bring up your sample ballot which you can print or save. We hope you will vote early or on November 6th. Register now if you are not registered. Friday, October 12th is the last day you can register to vote in this Midterm Election. One-stop (early) voting starts October 17 through November 3rd. If you do not know your County voting district you will see that info on your voting data page as above.
___________________________________________________________________________
July 24, 2018 -- Would You Like SGWASA to be a Private Utility?
Currently, SGWASA is a Public Water Authority, drowning in debt, with collapsing infrastructure, lacking a permanent Executive Director and with no ability to to borrow money for at least a decade. It is in way over its head in more ways than one.
Often a Public Water Authority will be purchased by a private company; a typical capitalist company with a profit motive. Do you think that would be a good idea for SGWASA? Here are some huge disadvantages to having a private utility: (a reference)
-
fear over the loss of employment and pensions for the municipal utility work force;
-
possible loss of grant money or tax-exempt financing for capital improvements;
-
higher water rates because private firms charge full costs and must pay taxes and earn a profit;
-
surrender of control over rate-making and other financial issues to state public utility commissions;
-
loss of control of daily operations and of service standards, as well as planning for long-term growth and economic development.
So Usually not a good idea!
The government of North Carolina has passed a law making that kind of "public to private" purchase of utilities easier. Both of your NC Assembly Reps voted for this Bill!
See the actual ratified Assembly Bill. See where NC House Representative Yarborough voted for it. See where NC Senate Representative McKissick and Woodard voted for it. Mr. Woodard is the incumbent state senator running for NC Senate in the Granville County district 22 formed by redistricting for the upcoming November mid-term election. Mr. McKissick will no longer be representing us in southern Granville after the election nor be a candidate in district 22.
Below is an article from Clean Water For North Carolina by Rachel Velez which give you more detail. We urge you to fight against SGWASA being taken over by a private company;
Looming Legislation Seeks to Incentivize Private Takeovers of Public Water Systems
“Fair market value” state legislation, filed as House Bill 351, is yet another mechanism proposed by for-profit utility companies like Aqua NC and Carolina Water Service to acquire more public water systems to boost their bottom line.
Dressed up as a “solution to America’s crumbling infrastructure”, HB 351 makes it more appealing for struggling municipal governments to sell their water systems to private utilities, allowing the local government to sell at a “fair market value” versus the actual depreciated cost. At face-value , this deal would appear to be more expensive for private utilities, but the purchase cost and the fee paid to a “valuation expert” who determines the “fair market value” would likely be passed on to ratepayers, plus a profit!
Not only does HB 351 motivate private utilities to take control of water and wastewater services out of the public’s control, the bill would also put consumers at risk of the less reliable water quality and service often associated with private utilities– as well as water rate hikes to pay for the higher price paid for the system!
This Bill was passed on July 14, 2018. Clean Water for NC will continue to monitor it, and advocate for greater state funding to maintain publicly controlled drinking water supplies and infrastructure. Our state should not encourage the purchase of these essential services by for-profit companies which are less accountable to the public!
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________
July 7, 2018 -- NC Department of Environmental Quality Says it Can't Help SGWASA
The NC Department of Environmental Quality, Division of Water Infrastructure, according to an article in the recent BC Newspaper (July 5th), has a program of loans and grants available to water authorities. The water authority, like SGWASA, must meet certain criteria to get a loan and those criteria mainly deal with the wealth of the county. The water companies in poorer counties can get good loans and grants.The people in the more wealthy counties can afford to have their water and sewer rates raised on high. According to DEQ, the state has many water authorities who are in bad shape, needing $26 billion dollars to bring them up to good infrastructure strength. DEQ only has 30 million to use for these water utilities.
Apparently, Granville County does not qualify for loans and grants out of this program. We are too rich and prosperous.
Here are the parameters they use to judge a county: (1) Population Change; (2) Population; (3) Unemployment rate; (4) Poverty Rate; (5) Median Household Income; (6) Total Appraised Property Value of the real estate in the County.
Those of you who like data and information and like to try to understand what these government people are talking about (if possible) you can see the details on the DEQ web site. and see the growing chaos we call SGWASA. Here is how you can do it.
Click here to go the DEQ website. On that site,on the right side, select Affordability Calculator. It is an Excel document that you can download and open. When you open it, look at the first tab in the document. Don’t forget to switch tabs on the Excel file to see the other data.
You can fill in Granville parameters on the red tab, taken from tab 3, the county data, and apparently it shows we are not eligible for any loans/grants. We are too wealthy. All the millionaires in my neighborhood here in Creedmoor will be disappointed.
Our point is that the state makes no exceptions for the fact that our water/sewer system goes back to WWII when run by the army and handed over from the Feds to the state with no finances for infrastructure repair and update, then handed over from the state to Butner with no finances for repair and update and then became our local SGWASA in 2005 with very little “start up” money. No adjustments for our unique beginnings and all the debt given to us by the feds and the state.
Wish us all luck. Sorry: those of you who want all that growth and want that shining city on the hill; that can't happen now with the SGWASA debt, disorganization, and old infrastructure. We will now definitely not attract people to at least this part of the county because our water and sewer rates will be climbing, no doubt at regular intervals. The word will spread about these rate increases which are already one of the highest in the state and people will not want to move here and many may leave. And the developers? The developers are about to be shut down in our communities because SGWASA is reaching its limits of sewer and water “capacity.” And then the real estate companies will fold soon after that. We're waiting for the local real estate community to get into this fight and demand more allowances for our unique situation just described. Pessimistic? We personally don’t think so.
And what do the rest of us do who don’t want out home values to drop?
So is this leading us toward the dystopian community where we have our water supply collapsing and shutting down due to breaks in pipes and other infrastructure? And we have emergencies in getting clean healthy water and sewage problems of all kinds? Breaking water pipes? Some are so old they are made of terra cotta, the ancient baked clay structure of ancient civilizations. Sewage breakage and contamination of that sort? Shutdowns and emergencies of a dangerous health nature? A dystopian world because no one paid attention? No one planned and no one realized we live in a democracy?
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
June 15th, 2018 -- Consider this Idea of Joining Kerr Lake Regional Water System?
We have communicated with an engineer in Oxford who works for the county. We asked her to give us some information on the fact that there are some water distribution pipes running out of Oxford toward Creedmoor. Those pipes and Oxford, are part of the Kerr Lake Regional Water System.
So she reviewed that for us and even sent us a map showing locations of those pipes (see below)
There are two pipes running toward Creedmoor. The largest pipe of 12 inches, a water main, runs on the side of rte 15 and ends at the Secound Trailer Park at the corner of rte 15 and Dixon Road, and we suspect, being the larger one, it would have to be the one run to consider running down to route 56 in Creedmoor. The distance from where the pipe ends, to Creedmoor less than 10 miles to rte 56 relative to the road distance. There is a smaller main water pipe (8 inches) running down along I85, which comes even closer to Creedmoor. Eight inches appears to be the smallest of what they call a “main.”
Ten miles of new pipe would get us connected to a whole new water system; the excellent water system of Kerr Lake Regional System. And that puts it well into Creedmoor, using rte 56 as end point. If you want to look on Google maps for where this pipe now ends on Rt 15, you can use the Secound Trailer Park on rte 15 as the starting point; that is right at the corner of Dixon Road and Rte 15.
Would extending the pipeline to Creedmoor be a possible solution to our southern Granville utility water problems? Is this an idea to consider? It would give us clean water from a dependable, modern water plant. People in that Kerr Lake system now pay far less than we do for water. Who knows if we could keep the rate low. Many political and economic issues to discuss of course. But might that be an idea to consider?
Below is the map showing the two pipes out of Oxford.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
June 12, 2018 -- Mayo and McKay Present the SGWASA Board with Powerful Ideas
During the June 12th SGWASA Meeting and in the Public Comments part of the Agenda. John Mayo of Butner and Frank McKay of Creedmoor, both made some powerful suggestions for solving the problems plaguing SGWASA.
See the full comments of Mayo here and McKay here
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________
May 27, 2018 -- Lindsay Mize's Parting Words--He describes the Mess he Leaves Behind-
He leaves SGWASA in Shambles
At the May 8th, 2018 SGWASA Meeting, several days before he announced his retirement, SGWASA Executive Director Mr. Mize made some profound comments on the state of the company he has run for thirteen years. Thirteen years, as the company continued to deteriorate from its World War II condition. The company now has profound debt, and, in a few weeks when Mize walks away, there will be five top plant supervisor positions lying vacant.It is doubtful if the water and sewer plants can function with these vacancies and deliver clean water to its 19,000 customers. SGWASA has reached its maximum capacities for accepting new customers in terms of pumping stations and the poor state of other facilities, distribution pipes, etc. They can no longer borrow money; state agencies forbid it. Rates paid by customers for SGWASA water are one of the highest in the state and will be going up again soon. They appear to be at a dead end with immense problems. Many of us find the statement, "a train wreck approaching" to be a very good metaphor.
You can listen to an audio of this depressing goodbye speech by clicking here. Thanks to John Mayo of Butner for that recording.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
May 11, 2018-Executive Director of SGWASA Retires
Executive Director, Lindsay Mize has announced his retirement at age 54!
We will see if it is the beginning of some serious changes and "new beginnings" at SGWASA but we have little hope for that event. At the May 8th SGWASA board meeting, his last regular meeting before announcing his retirement, Mr. Mize made many startling statements about SGWASA. We will soon have an audio recording of those statements and a brief transcript. Newspapers did not present his remarks to you or at least not in any detail.
There are already as many as four important, upper level supervisory positions vacant at SGWASA that deal with day to day water production (see April 17th post below). These vacancies and retirement of the Exec Director have thrown open new problems at SGWASA and new chaos has begun. (1) Whom to hire for the new Exec Director (2) how to fill the other vacancies and (3) proceed with hiring some engineers with expert experience to run the water and sewer plants while (4) solving all of the other problems of this company. There is large scale debt ($54 million), large scale plant deterioration and inadequate sewer capacity in pumping stations and other resstrictions such that growth in the SGWASA customer area is soon to come to a complete stop (some of us consider this a good idea). Also, in the opinion of many of us, an inactive and incompetent Board has been sitting on its hands, just like the retiring Executive Director did for 13 years. Rates paid by customers are one of the highest in the state (see below) and we are told, quite clearly and definitely, that rates will go up again in January. This is madness and must be corrected.
Soon we shall give you a summary and audio recording of what the retiring Executive Director said about the sad state of SGWASA at his very last regular meeting on May 8th when he knew he would be retiring. And what he said verifies what we say often on this web site: "it is not a pretty picture." A train wreck may be coming. They are in over their heads at SGWASA.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
May 23, 2018 -- SGWASA Fees-- Comparing what You Pay Relative to Other Water Companies
Perhaps you have seen these fee figures on the local networks or newspapers but they are always worth repeating.
A wonderful group at UNC School of Government is called the Environmental Finance Center. They have a section on their website called the NC Water and Wastewater Rates Dashboard where one can select one's water company, plug in what you pay for one months water and sewer and it will compare your rate to all NC water company rates for your gallons used.
Our senior editor used this tool to compare his 4/02/18 SGWASA water/sewer bill with many other NC water companies. His gallon usage for the month of that bill was 2890 and the charge for "water and sewage" was $84.95. So on the UNC web site, he put 2500 gallons into the computation section (he had to use the figure of 2500 gallons because only increments of 500 are given to compare with). Then the tool computed comparison fees.
The median fee for their large sample of NC public water systems was $49 for 2500 gallons and the SGWASA median customer rate was $80, a 63% higher rate. So SGWASA charges 63% more for water and sewer services than most NC water companies! See the chart below which displays this. Yikes. We have asked the UNC Group for the names of water companies with the top 10 highest water and sewer rates in NC and will let you know if SGWASA is in that group.
According to the NC web site, the town of Oxford would have charged him $53 for his gallons used this past month. Oxford is part of the Kerr Lake Regional Water Authority serving the cities of Oxford and Henderson and Warren County. Some folks in our community speculate that perhaps someday we will be able to join this Kerr Lake Authority and solve all or most of our water and sewer problems.
The UNC web site provided more detailed data that allows you to do various calculations on "affordability" and other parameters.
We checked directly with the UNC group and they confirmed that SGWASA in in the top state 10% of water authorities in rates they charge customers.
Here is the chart on the NC site that shows a median monthly charge of $49 for 2,500 gallons in the entire state of NC versus $80 for SGWASA!
See a report the UNC School of Government, Finance Center made specifically for us!
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________
May 19, 2018 -- Black Gunk In or On Your Tub, Sink, Faucets?
Some SGWASA customers report black goo/gunk in their bath tubs, sinks and faucets. Not any other way to describe it. We have no data on how prevalent this is; another reason SGWASA should do customer surveys. Casual discussions suggest this problem is distributed irregularly throughout the SGWASA customer area also suggesting this is somehow related to the character of the pipes in the distribution system. Perhaps age, or how much water sits in a given area and for how long etc. may cause this to happen in some places.
You can see a video of one customer in Butner, showing this black stuff.
Most likely the actual black stuff is oxidized manganese and bacteria feeding off of it to be the cause of this slimy mess.
Manganese is a metal that is required by the body in tiny amounts, but can be toxic at elevated levels, particularly in children. People can sometimes be exposed to high levels such as workers exposed to manganese dust, etc.. High exposure to children is stated as possibly dangerous to brain development and behavior. You can see good information on potential health effects of this metal at the U.S. Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR). Exposure to high levels in drinking water is apparently rare but we will keep checking that for you.
This from the ATSDR:
"HOW CAN FAMILIES REDUCE THE RISK OF EXPOSURE TO MANGANESE?
While tap and bottled water generally contain safe levels of manganese, well water may sometimes be contaminated with sufficiently high levels of manganese to create a potential health hazard. If drinking water is obtained from a well water source, it may be wise to have the water checked for manganese to ensure the level is below the current guideline level established by the EPA."
Common sense immediately suggests we need to know the level in public drinking water from SGWASA. See below for that.
The Environmental Protection Agency has water quality standards for manganese. It has established National Secondary Drinking Water Regulations (NSDWRs) that set non-mandatory water quality standards for 15 contaminants. EPA does not enforce these "secondary maximum contaminant levels" (SMCLs). They are established as guidelines to assist public water systems in managing their drinking water for aesthetic considerations, such as taste, color, and odor.
Certainly when we can use the words "goo or gunk," for these deposits; we have a disturbing situation for the appearance of our home and a sense of a dirty, unsightly and unwholesome situation that we cannot control. We should demand that this problem be solved and that such deposits become rare.
Here are two sentences on the EPA website link above:
These contaminants are not considered to present a risk to human health at the SMCL. However noticeable effects above the SMCL cause black to brown color; black staining and bitter metallic tastes for some of these 15 contaminants, including manganese.
Those two sentences seem confusing and contradictory. If there are no health effects at the SMCL, but noticeable effects to plumbing are seen above the SMCL, then that would appear to mean there are health effects when we see "noticeable" effect on our plumbing?
If you have "black stuff" as depicted above or anything like it, you might contact SGWASA and have your "black stuff" identified or your water tested or both.
Some new research also suggests manganese may be dangerous in some high level circumstances with ground water supplies; SGWASA is lake water and hence a surface water supply. Most water in the USA does not have high levels of manganese. You will see in the article referenced in this paragraph that the World Health Organization suggest a health-based limit of 0.4 parts per million (which is 400 parts per billion), the EPA sets the SMCL at 0.05 parts per million (milligrams per Liter).
From all of this above, it obviously would be wise to be aware of the manganese levels in our SGWASA water. Yearly test results from them are available at the NC State Public Water Supply web site. Go here to see those and for a given date click on the sample number. A quick look at several years shows the 2015 level is above the SMCL. The question which comes to mind is: Is a once a year manganese test sufficient for our health?
All of these types of discussions regarding contaminants in water can put questions into our head such as: (1) are national water standards adequate?; (2) is our health sufficiently protected by SGWASA; (3) is SGWASA going to collapse financially or physically or both and: (4) what are we going to do about these problems?
Final note on this contaminant. Much new data is becoming available from SGWASA as pressure is placed upon them demanding that data. We on this web site are trying to bring out as much data and truth about our water supply as possible. And a lot of that data does not look good. As above, some water quality issues are discussed on this website but there are many other problems in existence at SGWASA that do not seem likely to be solved or the probability of them being solved is low.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
April 23, 2018 -- State Workers in Butner also Do Not Like Their Water Quality from SGWASA
(see flyer below)
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
April 17th, 2018-- SGWASA Hires for Five "Turnover" Positions
But silence and mystery and tightly-closed secrets surround this event.
In the April 12th, 2018 issue of the Butner-Creedmoor News, SGWASA advertised for the following five staff positions:
-
Water Plant Operator
-
Lead Water Plant Operator
-
Public Utility Superintendent
-
Public Utility Supervisor
-
Meter Reader
It did not state if these were five new positions or positions recently vacated by firing or quitting. John Mayo of Butner, emailed the Executive Director of SGWASA and asked if these were additional positions or replacements for existing positions and the answer was REPLACEMENTS.
So why would SGWASA strangely have a large group of high level jobs vacant at one time? Why would this happen? Why would five people quit or be fired so close together? Suddenly no confidence in these five people? Very strange indeed. Another panic reaction?
Then Mr. Mayo of Butner asked the Exec Director of SGWASA, Lindsey Mize, this question on April 18th: "What is the reason for replacement of these people? " Mr. Mize's answer was, and we quote: "It is normal operating procedures to refill position turn over."
This communication was in an email and Mr. Mayo then asked Mr. Mize: "Is it normal to have so many high level positions turn over at the same time?" Good question. Here is Mr. Mize's exact answer:
"I would think that would come back to a definition of “normal”. Since you asked me my opinion, I will offer this: In my 20 plus years of managing personnel, I have noticed that all things go in cycles. All positions will become vacant at some point in time. As that cycle rotates, management positions become vacant as well. It is hoped that multiple management positions are not vacant at any one point in time, but that is something that will statistically happen. I have seen it happen in the past and I’m sure it will happen again."
Lindsay
Lindsay L. Mize, P. E.
Executive Director
So, by sheer coincidence and probability theory, we have lost five critical positions by chance! A sheer, almost, improbable event has happened at SGWASA! Wow, isn't the world a funny place!
Second, isn't it disconcerting to have to communicate with a public utility in this way? They could have a section of their web site for public notices; public communications! There is a state law for public employees where the public must be told who was hired and when they left the company, etc. Some people are checking on this; too much secrecy in SGWASA; too much mystery. We shall find out and get some answers as to what is going on there.
The panic concept might be at work here. We are now in another quarter of the year, the April to June quarter when another DBP measurement must be taken to see if they remain in compliance for that contaminant. That measurement, we believe, must be taken in the warmest month of each quarter because more DBPs are produced in warmer weather. Perhaps they want new staff now to train them for the June measurement? Going out of compliance in June would be a small disaster for SGWASA as it will be any time they go out of compliance again. Wouldn't it be nice to know what is going on?
Lack of good communication with the public has been a theme at SGWASA for the last thirteen years. They have remained a mystery, a high priced one, with numerous contaminant violations.
UPDATE
State laws allow us to receive the hire date/termination dates and other data for the last employees in the advertised positions. John Mayo requested this info and we received it.
Look at this table and think about what it means:
Note that there has been no Lead Water Plant Operator since August 2012! Nor a Water Plant Operator since last November. No Public Utility Superintendent for one year! No Public Utility Supervisor since last July! How do you run water and sewer plants safely and produce clean drinking water without those persons? Does this explain many of the contaminant violations over the last few years? What else might it explain?
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
April 3rd, 2018: Water Contaminant "Compliance;" What is that and what does it mean for you?
So, what are the big question of SGWASA and those notices in the mail about contaminants in your water and something about cancer, etc. We plan to spend a good chuck of time trying to understand this whole mess and we will pass along any good data and information we learn.
Our first installment of "What is Compliance" and "What does it mean to you" can be found here on a separate page. This first part is defining it and the second part is our opinion on what we might hope for in the near future.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
March 31, 2018: Scientists State the Dangers of Haloacetic Acids
In a new 2018 scientific paper, the abstract of which can be seen here, a group of scientists make a very important statement. It is significant relative to the fact that the major category of water contaminants which is found in SGWASA water is Haloacetic acid. We place their statement in quotes and red text for emphasis:
"The disinfection of drinking water has been a major public health achievement. However, haloacetic acids (HAAs), generated as byproducts of water disinfection, are cytotoxic, genotoxic, mutagenic, carcinogenic, and teratogenic."
-
Cytotoxic means toxic to your cells (cells die or stop growing, etc.)
-
Genotoxic means toxic to your DNA, the genetic material. This means the DNA is destroyed or made inactive. (genotoxicity is often confused with mutagenicity, all mutagens are genotoxic, whereas not all genotoxic substances are mutagenic.)
-
Mutagenic means the capacity to change your genetic material, DNA, and thus increase the frequency of mutations above the natural background level.
-
Carcinogenic means the capacity to cause cancer in your body.
-
Teratogenic means the capacity to cause birth defects in humans and other mammals.
This certainly should mean that we carefully watch SGWASA for any more violations of haloacetic acid contamination in the water we receive from them. We will soon discuss on this site, a little chemistry so that you can get a bigger picture of this contamination problem. See the chart in the post immediately below, where you will see the major violation is definitely haloacetic acids.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
March 30 - 2018 Updated SGWASA Violations for Disinfectant Byproducts
The table below is an update of the SGWASA main Water Contaminant Violations for 2017. As you can see, the violations go back for many years, even before SGWASA legally took its current name. You can see this list of violations for SGWASA on the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality web site. Or on the Environmental Protection website.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
March 25- 2018: Executive Director of SGWASA Speaks
This month and last, SGWASA Executive Director Lindsay Mize made some startling announcements after 13 years on the job.
He noted that a SGWASA problem of getting sewage water across I-85 is such a large problem that it could slow down if not halt growth in some areas of South Granville!
(Editor's note: why would slowing or halting growth be a bad idea? Whose value judgement is that? It's worth a few words to try to understand that.
There are many studies that show residential growth will demand more schools, teachers, police, fire department needs, road repair, etc. So taxes will almost always go up with growth. Older people reading this have never heard of County/City taxes going down in their entire life. Residential development is very demanding of community services.
Plenty of references to be found on this concept . It's called "Cost of Community Services (COCS) Relative to Taxes Paid" and it's reported in the ratio of each dollar spent for services relative to each dollar of tax. So it's this ratio: COCS$/Tax$ paid. So if more is spent on COCS per dollar versus each dollar of tax collected, the number will be greater than one -- and the reverse. Nearly all of the studies that have been undertaken show that the ratio for residential land is above 1.0, signifying that residential land results in a net drain on local government budgets. On the other hand, the ratios for the other two land use categories (commercial/industrial and farmland/open space) are usually well below 1.0, representing a net tax gain for the municipality.
So who wants growth that will raise our taxes? Not those of us on this web site!)
Here is some background data on this sewer water and related problems, published by SGWASA in January/February of 2018. (see page 32 of that document: quotes from that document are indented below and in quote marks)
"Regional planning must be done so as the growth continues to come to the area. A plan needs to be in place so those doing the expanding will know what needs to be done to serve the southern areas of Granville County." (Editor's note: So after 13 years in the job, the Executive Director finally thinks a regional plan should be done?)
"A Water and Sewer System Master Plan must be developed." (wow; that means that after 80 years of existence, someone thinks the entire venture should be examined! )
"There must be a long term plan when the current wastewater treatment plant reaches its limits as to nutrient removal. Where will additional capacity come from. Once that milestone is dealt with – where will the next raw water supply come from? Will SGWASA look to moving its discharge to above Lake Holt and becoming self sufficient as to water supply? (Public perception of these types of options has continued to offer opposition.)"
(Editor's note: Yes, after 80 years, this is a good idea. This points out that these water and sewer plants were dumped on North Carolina to get rid of them fast after WWII and then someone was the "sucker" when they were turned over to Butner. That is, first the State, then the County and then the City were talked into accepting a system thrown together for WWII purposes and then in this century, the Community accepted these wonderful plants in a poor, poor physical condition without any funds to bring them up to modern condition. See the history of all this here.
But if you want to put that monster aside for a few minutes.
Nutrient removal refers to the largest waste contaminant in human waste: nitrogen and phosphorus. Once the water is cleaned to standards set and monitored by state and federal officials, it is typically released into a local water body, where it can become a source of nitrogen and phosphorus pollution. Here Mize is apparently asking: "Will the public like the idea of us dumping the treated sewage water above Lake Holt, our current water source, and letting it thus come back down into the lake. Hence continual "recycling" of water into Lake Holt and no worry about having enough drinking water. p.s. aren't you curious where we dump our treated sewer water now? We are. We suppose it must go into the Neuse River Water Shed drainage and down to Falls of the Neuse Lake, Raleigh's drinking water supply).
"Additional regulations of water and wastewater. For many years there have been discussions about “Unregulated Contaminants”. The list of these contaminants has grown over the years – for the water side as well as the wastewater side. These are but a few items that will need to be addressed in the future."
(Editors note: Yes, the chemical contaminants that SGWASA has had problems removing are called "disinfectant byproducts" or DBPs. There are large numbers of them in all water treated with disinfectants like chlorine and all water must be treated with some disinfectant. Over 600 different types of DBPs have been found but only 11 are regulated by the EPA! These 11 are sort of a "proxy" for the more than 600. If you like science articles check this one out. This supports the concept of what huge research must be done in the future for safe drinking water. And these DBPs are only the beginning of the types of substances that we will have to be concerned with in the future. And this is why we must keep our eye on SGWASA and why we all may need to have a reverse osmosis filter in our house in the near future!
"These are but a few items that will need to be addressed in the future. There are some items that are
more currently pressing. These will be discussed below."
"Connection across I-85"
"In the past history there two of the 5 water and sewer systems located on the eastern side of I-85 and the railroad tracks – the City of Creedmoor and Lyon Station Sanitary District. So there were two independent methods/modes to transport wastewater back across I-86 and the railroad. The City of Creedmoor built and upgraded the Joe peed Road wastewater pumping system. It currently has the main pump station with a booster station and 8 inch and 12 inch forcemain. Lyon Station utilized a 12 inch gravity sewer line."
"The Joe Peed Road Pumping System (JPPS) was upgraded by the City of Creedmoor to pump 1.0 Million gallons per day of wastewater. When a new development extends the gravity sewers that connects to JPPS, the State of NC Permitting section has formula so that a local government can never over load a pumping system and cause a spill. That formula calls for the design capacity of the station to be divided by a peaking factor of 2.5. This leaves the JPPS with a capacity of 400,000 gallons per day."
"With the existing usage for the City and eastward the JPPS currently has about 60,000 gallons per day left. (to put that into perspective a 3 bedroom home is projected to use 264 gallons per day – so the 60,000 per day will be about 227 3 bedroom homes.) There are several developments in process that will use this capacity up." (Editors note: by "several developments," he means the building of homes in several new residential subdivisions. So why hasn't he or SGWASA Board Members, or the mayors of our towns told us about this years ago? )
At the March 13th, 2018, the SGWASA Board voted, 3 to 2, to hire an engineering company for $589,465, to study this problem. Your money. Just a study. The cost will no doubt be in the millions and added to the roughly 8 million already needed to upgrade the deteriorating plants. SGWASA is already in debt for 43 million! See the other engineering story on the horrid physical state of the plants.
So, after 13 years on the job, the leaders of SGWASA think it might be a good idea to do some planning and some serious thinking in regard to their drinking water and sewage plants!
Maybe it is not all their fault that these plants are in such a physical wreck and all these problems are accumulating and growing. Where have the mayors of the towns SGWASA serves been for years? And where are they now? We can guess they are shutting up and don't want to "rock the boat;" politically dangerous -- do you think? We don't want the word out to the world that we have a pretty incompetent and dilapidated plants at our water authority.
How about the SGWASA seven Board Members? Do you have a lot of faith in them? Where have they been for the last 13 years? Yes, they change regularly but most are probably in it for the few dollars they receive. The mayors and the Board are part of the "system" that can effect the water quality you drink. Does this sound to you like things are going along smoothly and everything will be just fine and dandy? Rebuilding the water and sewage plants? Sewage lines across I-85? Already in large debt? What is the condition of the water and sewer distribution pipes -- some under the ground since WWII? How long will this take to update? Can they stay financially solvent or will they have to raise rates on us? Growth???? Do we need Growth????? What do you think we need? Some new mayors or a new SGWASA Executive Director? You might want to ask a lot of questions regarding this to your mayor, other town officials, and perhaps County and State officials.
See email contacts for the SGWASA Board below.
Watch this water authority carefully and observe them regularly for the quality of your water and study the level of competence of SGWASA leaders and its Board.oardseem high and we have not even covered several other problems we are investigating. See an editorial on this site on"secret closed meetings at SGWASA." Editorial #4
Many of us think SGWASA is way-in-over-their-head. It may be too late and we may need State or Federal intervention.Minimally, SGWASA may have to be dismantled as it exists now. If you think this will end well --- you have little evidence to convince us. Please do not state trivial 8th grade-like statements such as: "just let SGWASA alone and let them fix the problem." That is irrational, for the many reasons stated above. We would welcome a turn around and revolution on the Board and among the SGWASA leaders and town officials. You should demand it.
We can only give you one piece of advice and this is a quote from a famous man. We think it fits somehow. You decide.
"I think it makes sense to seek out and identify structures of authority, hierarchy and domination in every aspect of life and to challenge them; unless a justification for them can be given, they are illegitimate and should be dismantled to increase the scope of human freedom." Noam Chomsky
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Here are the emails of the SGWASA Board: Just click on them to send a message-- they are live!
councilmemberbirdsong@butnernc.org
Below is the block all seven board members; copy and paste into you email program.
tim.karan@granvillecounty.org; councilmemberbirdsong@butnernc.org; kenneth.mclamb.stem@gmail.com; emims@cityofcreedmoor.org; gkicinski@cityofcreedmoor.org; jimmy.gooch@butnernc.org; linda.jordon@butnernc.org