BY DEBBIE PAGE

A water resources engineer from Kimley-Horn provided the Troutman Town Council with an update on water and sewer projects and offered suggestions for planning for the town’s infrastructure needs during the council’s recent strategic planning retreat.

Troutman is currently under a 30-month development moratorium because the town lacks sewer treatment capacity to serve more customers. The town purchases most of its capacity from the Town of Mooresville, which is also strained from growth, and a smaller amount of capacity from the City of Statesville.

Kimley-Horn is working with the Town of Troutman to ensure it has sustainable infrastructure and support through the process, engineer Shelby Hughes said.

Troutman’s wastewater currently flows south to Mooresville or north to Statesville for treatment. The flow from Troutman is approximately 449,000 gallons per day, according to Hughes.

The way Statesville and Mooresville view sewer capacity and their infrastructure receiving points are evolving. “The current state of capacity for Troutman is a little bit of a challenge,” said Hughes.

The Town of Troutman has a capacity agreement with the Town of Mooresville for sewer treatment of up to 2 million gallons per day (MGD), but the town’s infrastructure to direct sewer flow to the Mooresville basin and Mooresville’s to receive are both limited at this point.

The sewer capacity in Statesville is in flux because Troutman’s contract with Statesville has expired, but Hughes said the town has the opportunity to start negotiating with the municipality to see what a new agreement might look like in the short and long term.

“At this point, the priority for Troutman is to to secure sewer capacity for your existing service area as well as the future service area,” said Hughes.

Three projects are underway to support meeting the town’s sewer capacity needs. The first phase is an initial transmission main expansion from Mooresville to the new point of receiving wastewater. The current South Iredell station is out of capacity, so Troutman cannot increase flow until it connects to the new Wiggins Road pump station, one of the transmission line improvements intended to divert flow from the South Iredell pump.

Hughes said the degree of criticality of the coming Wiggins Road pump station depends on the agreement the town may strike with Statesville.

The Phase 2 project will divert flow from the Statesville sewer basin down to Mooresville to Wiggins Road pump station to maximize its 2 MGD agreement, in effect until 2046, with Mooresville.

However, even when the Wiggins Road station can receive the 2 MGD, the Mooresville treatment plant is nearing its capacity. It is currently between 70 to 80 percent. Mooresville is currently considering an expansion project that would nearly double the capacity of  its sewer treatment facilities.

The Phase 2 infrastructure can also be used to increase flow to Statesville if an agreement is reached or to any sewer facility that the Town of Troutman may choose to build in the future.

The third potential project phase recommended by Kimley-Horn is a sewer transmission line to the Third Creek treatment facility in Statesville, which Hughes noted had not been vetted in technical terms for alignment.

Hughes said the goal of this project would be to pump from a proposed pump station at Amity Hill, as part of the Phase 2 project, up to Statesville, probably before Phase 2 was built, to exceed the capacity the town can currently pump to Statesville, based on the infrastructure that is currently in the ground.

Right now the town can pump up to 407,000 GPD to Statesville. This project would increase that capacity but is dependent on how much capacity Statesville is willing to allocate to Troutman.

“That conversation is ongoing,” said Hughes. “We don’t have direction on that yet. We are in conversations with Statesville right now. We have been working with the water and sewer committee to figure out a path forward, so I don’t want to say that is in any way confirmed, but we are starting to look at that as a second or third phase for the transmission system expansion.”

She said Statesville has plenty of treatment capacity at present but is working to attract its own growth and is reluctant to commit to Troutman’s long-term needs.

Hughes said that Kimley-Horn is looking at the sewer capacity from both a planning perspective of hard infrastructure projects as well as a master planning view.

“These three phases would be hard infrastructure projects, but the master plan is going to be all encompassing — how this is going to happen, when it needs to happen, when the flow diversions need to occur, what the staffing and operations support looks like, what the funding needs to look like, and then the other projects that will come along with it, essentially building up to what eventually be a treatment plant owned by Troutman if that is what we determine is the most feasible thing from a rate-based perspective and a cost impact perspective compared to continuing to discharge sewer to Mooresville and Statesville.”

Hughes said the negotiations with Mooresville have been straightforward since the long-term capacity agreement is in place. The coordination with Statesville has more complexity because the agreement must be renegotiated.

“We have identified a little bit of a path forward with priority goals, the first of which is a short-term capacity commitment,” Hughes said.

Hughes hopes to work out a one-year to three-year capacity agreement that will allow continued development in Troutman while negotiating either a long-term agreement with Statesville of up to 10 to 20 years. This will give Troutman officials time to find funding and a technical path forward to potentially build a treatment facility in Troutman.

Hughes said Kimley-Horn is working on completing a 20 to 30 year master plan so implementation can start, but the short-term capacity agreement with Statesville is a critical component of that plan.

Otherwise, completion of the phase two project will be really important for development to continue in Troutman.

Hughes said the proposed Troutman lift station on Amity Hill Road creates a central infrastructure point to receive sewer so the town is not investing in infrastructure that is not going to usable in the future.

“It’s really important from a planning prospective but also an investment prospective. By introducing that central point of sewer, we could pump to Statesville now and then divert that flow later on. That investment in hard infrastructure and pump station is sound, regardless of what the future looks like.”

“It gives us a short-term, firm understanding of what our capacity is going to be from Statesville while being confident that the money you are going to invest is a good investment because you are also going to be able to use that long term.”

Future flow diversions will be dependent on what development does come. “We have a really good idea of what that looks like in the short-term, but it will likely need to change.”

“That’s why the master planning effort is really important to establish what that base line looks like, plan for that near term, but also have a long-term strategy for considering long-term flow diversions to a Troutman wastewater plant.”

Hughes wants the Troutman plan to help Iredell County develop in general since Statesville and Mooresville are growing as well. “It’s really on everyone to start updating their master plans and understanding the infrastructure it’s going to take to support the growth and development.”

“Working together, partnering with Statesville, partnering with Mooresville, to build sustainable infrastructure but also to understand how we can help Statesville secure their long-term support for their service area, especially to the south where Troutman owns infrastructure, that is a bargaining chip that is really more based in partnership.”

“If it makes make sense for Troutman to grant Statesville ownership of infrastructure that Troutman currently owns but is serving Statesville service area, we think that would be beneficial for both Statesville and Troutman if Statesville is willing to in turn give a short-term commitment of capacity.”

“It’s a really good opportunity to make your system dedicated towards just the Troutman service area but giving Statesville that long-term comfort that they are going to be able to serve their service area after Troutman is no longer discharging to Statesville.”

The last piece of the puzzle is if Troutman builds its own facility, Statesville sewer treatment facilities are left with unused capacity. However, with the master plan timeline, Hughes said “they can plan to reallocate the capacity at their plant at that time.”

Hughes said Kimley-Horn has agreed to consult with Statesville as they are creating Troutman’s master water and sewer treatment plan to take into account their projects as Troutman’s plans for its own over a 20 or 30 year timeline.

Long-term, the Troutman service area could discharge to its own wastewater facility, but Hughes noted it could make sense to maintain an agreement with Mooresville because of topography, but the capacity amount may reduce, also allowing Mooresville more capacity for other projects.

The first master plan milestone would be around 2030, which is to get short-term capacity to meet current development demands. By 2036, Hughes said the plan would ensure that the town builds the infrastructure to support the growth and development and identify timeline points of flow diversion if Troutman treatment plant comes online and flows can be diverted from the Statesville system.

By 2046, the Mooresville contract expires and could be extended, if It makes sense, rather than build a Troutman facility.

The next master plan phase would be to look for treatment plant funding, find a plant site, and plan for the significant growth coming in the area.

Hughes said that working out a long-term agreement with Statesville and Mooresville might be more beneficial than building a plant, but “the concern is that you do not want to land in this situation that you are in currently again.”

Hughes pointed out that Statesville and Mooresville have no real incentive to keep treating Troutman’s wastewater discharge.

“If Troutman does not eventually make that leap, and from a funding perspective identify what’s really going to be required, you are just taking the current situation and in the short-term resolving it, but in 20 years it’s going to come up again.”

“You will really lose your own independence to control capacity, development, and rates from an infrastructure perspective because you are beholden to two other municipalities.”

Hughes said a site has been identified for further study for a treatment plant.

From a funding perspective, Hughes said, Troutman is is a unique position. Bond, federal, grant, and low-interest loans are options. Looking at sewer rates and impact fees would also be big factors in determining the economic feasibility of building a treatment plant.

Hughes said conversations will begin in early summer with the state to locate funding opportunities. She said enterprise funding fees that place the burden of cost on new development on developers can help.

Mayor Teross Young asked about investing in the other cities’ systems as an alternative. Hughes said after the short-term needs are addressed, that option would be a serious conversation to have, if the other municipalities are interested and agree, because it would give Troutman a voice and decision-making power in future sewer capacity discussions.

The Town of Cary has a similar regionalization agreement with two other small cities, with each contributing a percentage for treatment costs and each responsible from its internal sewer infrastructure.