Regarding the budget items for the treatment of Pittsboro's water, what I understood from this last Town Board meeting (and preceding ones) was actually this. The $1.2 million for the two large steel tanks is not an "unforeseen" extra cost. Rather the Town was expecting to only pay for design and permitting right now, with equipment and installation costs of extra piping to come. Since the plan was to have this project completed within 12-15 months, but the lead-time (wait) for the tanks was currently 7 months, the Board was asked if they wanted to go ahead and order the tanks now. So paying earlier was not foreseen a month ago, but the tanks were always included in the project, and in the original rough estimate.
As stated in the article, increases in steel prices may have increased the costs of the tanks, but not by $1.2 million. (That total also includes the first load of the granulated activated charcoal (GAC) that would filter the PFAS -- and other contaminants -- out of the water.)
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