Text and photo by Peter Vankevich
Ocracoke’s familiar water tower, which is a landmark visible for miles across the sound and serves as the first glimpse of the island for those on the Pamlico Sound ferries, will be replaced by the end of this year.
Built in 1977, the water tower is located on Water Plant Road behind the Ocracoke Preservation Society museum and is situated on National Park Service property under a long-term lease agreement.
Construction has begun for the new water tower, which will be painted blue with OCRACOKE on it and is adjacent to the existing one.
It will have the same height, 128 feet, and hold the same amount of water, 150,000 gallons, said Earl Gaskins the plant systems manager of the Ocracoke Sanitary District (OSD). About 10 antennas will be at the top and may serve as perching sites for Peregrine Falcons and Great Horned Owls, two species that have been observed on the current tower.
The planning and design work was completed by the Garner engineering firm Municipal Engineering, who will provide onsite construction management and oversight. Phoenix Fabricators, an Avon, Indiana, firm that specializes in elevated water tanks, was awarded the construction contract.
Funding comes from a Water Tower Replacement Project Grant of $5.9 million approved by the State Water Infrastructure Authority managed by the NC Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) and derives from the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (ARPA), a federal economic stimulus bill passed under the Biden administration, said Scott Bradley, president of the OSD board of commissioners.
Bradley said the grant also includes replacing the 65 old fire hydrants and flushing hydrants on the island in partnership with the Ocracoke Volunteer Fire Department. That project has been completed. Most of the hydrants were more than 45 years old and, like the old water tower, suffered from prolonged exposure to salt air and water.
OSD also received a $150,000 Asset Inventory and Assessment grant.
This funding will allow the OSD to map and inventory all 16 miles of existing water mains, assess the condition of pipes, identify priority areas for maintenance or replacement, document neighborhoods that do not currently receive OSD water and develop conceptual options for future service.
By law, the ARPA money must be spent and the projects completed by December, Bradley said, noting he expects the tower to be done by September.
The OSD was formed in 1972 and began to place water lines in Ocracoke village in anticipation of a water tower.
Prior to that, the village relied on wells and cisterns that gathered rainwater.
Thanks to grant funding, back then property owners paid a hookup fee of $30. These days the cost to add a water line to a new structure is more than $5,000.
Because this replacement project derives from grant money, there will not be increases to the monthly water charges, Bradley said.
Ocracoke’s water plant gets water via “reverse osmosis,” in which brackish water is pushed through a membrane to remove the salt.
Three wells at the plant extract the raw water from the Castle Hayne Aquifer more than 600 feet underground. While the upper layers of this water lens contain fresh water, its lower depths contain brackish water from which the plant draws its water.
Castle Hayne aquifer is the most productive freshwater aquifer in North Carolina, spanning 12,500 square miles in the eastern coastal plain. Composed primarily of limestone and sand, this highly permeable, shallow aquifer provides over 60 million gallons of water daily.
In addition to Ocracoke, it is the principal water supply for New Hanover, Brunswick and Pender counties.
In addition to Gaskins, OSD staffers are Janie Garrish, Robbie Lewis, Carson O’Neal and Marcus Lawson.
The elected sanitary board members who oversee the operation are Bradley, Bill Caswell, Flavia Burton, Regina O’Neal Boor and Bobby O’Neal.
Once the new water tower is up and functioning, the old tower will be demolished.