News-Record.com

Scoop's colleague Taft Wireback wrote an update on the Randleman Reservoir today. There's already some discussion going on over at Debatables, where the central questions is whether the folks building the dam have taken to long to tap it. Having a big old new water supply might be useful after all as we are in the midst of a drought.

Here's one bit of feedback from that discussion:

Of course they are moving too slowly. This should have been done in the 1950's with federal money, at 10,000 acres and a recreation lake as originally envisioned. Given the current situation, the others are right -- the main reason that the plant was not done at the same time as the lake was the sheer ineptness of the local politicians.

You really can't lay the long timeframe all on the local politicos. Clearing land, moving roads and jumping through all the environmental hurdles takes time. There have been small matters of upstream sewage plants and the like to deal with as well.

But - you knew there was a but - there has been some feuding over the project. High Point, in particular has had some rough patches with the authority. Consider this excerpt from a July 2003 story about building the very same water treatment plant Wireback wrote about today:

Leaders of the agency building the Randleman Reservoir reviewed the projected costs of their planned water treatment plant Tuesday in response to concerns voiced by High Point officials earlier this year.

Led by City Manager Strib Boynton, High Point officials have been discussing whether the city could save money - as much as $12 million - by not helping build the treatment plant. But John Kime, Piedmont Triad Water Authority executive director, and engineers who work for the authority say that High Point 's estimate must be based on inaccurate information.

During the presentation Tuesday, Kime and engineer Joseph McGougan said the initial water treatment plant would cost about $27.4 million to build and would be able to treat about 12 million gallons of water a day.

That plant's capacity, McGougan said, could be increased to 18 million gallons a day for about $1.5 million. This second estimate is much less than the numbers used by Boynton, Kime said.

"That would be good if they'd put it in writing," said Boynton, who did not attend the meeting. When asked if the estimates offered by Kime allayed his cost concerns, Boynton said he would want High Point engineers to review the numbers.

My understanding is that argument is water under the bridge, but I'm thinking local folks might like to see some water in their taps before too long.