RALEIGH — The North Carolina Utilities Commission has postponed a second public hearing on a proposed transfer of Fearrington Village wastewater operations to Briar Chapel.
The decision was made after the Commission’s Public Staff filed a motion Jan. 21 asking for the delay, stating investigators needed to see Old North State Water Company, the firm behind the transfer, “develop and successfully implement the necessary equipment improvements and improved maintenance and operating procedures” to reduce the impact the current Briar Chapel Wastewater Treatment Plant has made on nearby residents.
“The Public Staff is extremely concerned about the extensive and compelling customer testimony on the reclaimed water issues,” the motion stated, “including odor, excessive watering, spraying outside the permitted areas, windblown reclaimed water, and the lack of responsiveness by Old North State and Environlink’s to the customer complaints.”
The motion painted a scathing picture of ONSWC’s treatment of both its wastewater and its customers, as well as alleging that Newland Communities, which developed Briar Chapel, controlled the neighborhood’s Briar Chapel Community Association — essentially a homeowners association — until recently and “had substantially different interests compared to the new resident-controlled BCCA.”
ONSWC first made the application for the transfer in November 2017, citing an aging facility at Fearrington Village and the need to “meet upcoming nutrient management requirements for discharge into the Jordan Lake watershed.” In December 2019 testimony before the NCUC, ONSWC President Michael Myers said his group had held “numerous informational meetings on this transfer” and had met with the homeowners associations of both Briar Chapel and Fearrington Village “on numerous occasions over the past two years.”
But according to last week’s motion, NCUC Public Staff said they hadn’t learned that the BCCA Board of Drectors had been “controlled” by NNP-Briar Chapel, also referred to as “the developer of Briar Chapel” until late November 2019.
“It was only after that turnover that the Briar Chapel homeowners had control of the BCCA decision-making processes,” the motion stated. “The current BCCA board members elected by the homeowners have advised the Public Staff that the BCCA, despite their efforts, was unsuccessful in hiring an attorney prior to the December 27, 2019, deadline for petitions to intervene in this proceeding... It was only the weekend of January 11 and 12, 2020, that the Briar Chapel residents learned the BCCA would not be representing them. Hence, the fact the petition of the Briar Chapel customers containing approximately 647 signatures were gathered in 2 to 3 days demonstrates the extent of the customers’ discontent with the wastewater utilities service at Briar Chapel.”
More than 20 Briar Chapel residents had filed signed statements expressing their displeasure with the transfer, citing poor customer service, bad odor coming from the current treatment plant and improper dispersion of reclaimed water. At the Jan. 14 meeting, 230 customers attended a public meeting in Pittsboro, with 31 Briar Chapel residents testifying before the NCUC requesting denial of the transfer.
According to documents from the NCUC, the Fearrington Village treatment plant was serving 1,329 customers at the end of 2017, and the Briar Chapel system serves 1,967 residential customers and 16 commercial customers.
Editor’s Note: In next week’s News + Record, we will explore the history of this proposed transfer and go deeper into consumer complaints and ONSWC’s public responses.
Reporter Zachary Horner can be reached at zhorner@chathamnr.com or on Twitter at @ZachHornerCNR.