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Published: Tuesday, Dec. 13, 2011 / Updated: Tuesday, Dec. 13, 2011 12:27 PM

York County looks to meet future water needs

LAKE WYLIE -- 

A water storage facility may be coming to Mill Creek and another leaving River Hills in a move to meet area demand for the coming decades.

York County staff last week recommended Council purchase property from Crescent Resources for a new, 1.5 million gallon elevated water storage tank to be built along the western boundary of Mill Creek Commons. The 1.2-acre property should cost about $102,000. The project itself could cost $4.9 million – $4.1 million for the tank construction and $850,000 for a booster station near Concord Road.

Mark Kettlewell, county engineer, said there are “very few obstacles” to finalizing the project that should come online in spring 2014. Proposed is a 165-foot concrete column tank, painted white, which likely won’t have any wording on the outside. The tank is part of the county’s plan to provide water for its western water system, which stretches along the S.C. 274 corridor from Newport to Lake Wylie.

“It’ll hold us on storage for another 12 years,” Kettlewell said, “when we’ll have to look at adding another storage tank.”

The state requires storage of half the system’s maximum day demand, now at 2.2 million gallons per day. Currently one ground and two elevated storage units provide 950,000 gallons – 500,000 at Concord Road and 200,000 at River Hills, along with 250,000 gallons at Mount Gallant Road. By 2024, the maximum day demand is projected at 4.5 million gallons per day.

Construction of the new 1.5 million gallon tank at Mill Creek Commons will add to the 750,000 gallons at Concord Road and Mount Gallant, bringing total capacity to 2.25 million gallons. The River Hills facility would be removed from the system.

“York County currently utilizes the River Hills elevated storage tank for a small portion of its system storage,” read the staff recommendation to county council. “This tank is relatively small and low in height compared to the western system’s hydraulic grade line. Therefore, the tank will be removed from service once the new tank is placed in operation.”

Council approved the property purchase at about $85,000 per acre. Councilman David Bowman questioned purchasing such an expensive piece of land for the storage tank, but was told the project could be more expensive elsewhere.

“It is a very expensive piece of property,” Kettlewell said. “That elevation that goes with that property is very valuable to us.”

A tank of the size needed for the project costs $17,000 per foot off the ground, with tank height critical to proper operation. The 15-foot difference in natural elevation between the proposed site and something just across the street could be a quarter million dollars or more in construction cost savings.

County staff still needs to complete a boundary survey of the site, complete the purchase agreement with Crescent, complete a site plan to submit to county zoning, have the property rezoned for public use and finalize the purchase agreement.

The River Hills facility to be taken offline is owned by Carolina Water Service, with the county leasing it only in that it pays maintenance and upkeep costs. Once such a tank is no longer in use, Kettlewell said, typically it becomes surplus property and is offered for sale. There won’t be restrictions on the property where the tank stood, he said, based on it having been there.