Drinking Water Supply Assessment
A. Greater Waverly Area
The county public water supply system that serves the Greater Waverly area obtains its source water from the Coastmont and Shasta confined aquifers. This water is treated at two county-owned and operated treatment plants. These plants can produce up to 15 MGD and all supply systems are interconnected to provide redundancy. The current wells are all in operation. The county water and sewer plan outlines a plan to take a few smaller wells offline in the next three years and replace them with three larger production wells that, with existing wells, will produce 18 MGD under full operation. Current water production meets current water demands, and the new wells will ensure the adequate supply of water beyond planning horizon demands. The two aquifers from which the county draws water are estimated to be able to produce up to 25 MGD on short-term high demand. The portions of the county outside of the Waverly area are served by individual wells which tap the upper unconfined aquifers. Based on MDE’s best estimates, the county believes that the water supply provided by these aquifers will be sufficient to meet the demands of the unserved population outside of the Waverly area.
B. Town of Piedmont
The residents of the town of Piedmont receive their drinking water from the Harkins Water Treatment Plant, which is owned and operated by the town. Current well production is permitted for 0.65 MGD. The water source is groundwater from the fractured Piedmont crystalline rock and has been calculated to be at its maximum safe yield at the current draw down. An assessment of water availability indicates that sufficient groundwater supplies are not available to meet projected needs. Due to the inability to expand water production from the groundwater source within the town limits, there is a moratorium on new building permits at this time, and the town is investigating numerous options to expand its water supply. One option is a water appropriation to withdraw two MGD from the Coastmont River. The town and county are investigating a pipeline connection to Waverly area water supplies. The town is also implementing water conservation measures, seeking to detect and correct water distribution losses and investigating mandatory clustering for all new development, requiring dedicated preservation land for groundwater banking.
C. Town of Forestville
The town of Forestville owns, operates and maintains its own water supply and distribution system. The water supply comes from deep wells in the Coastmont aquifer. Current water production produces three MGD, and the town’s MGE indicates that the future water demands from expected growth will be met by the ample supply of water within the Coastmont aquifer. However, the town will apply for an additional one MGD water appropriation from the Coastmont aquifer in approximately 2020.
Coastmont County recognizes that the protection of source water recharge areas is of paramount importance when preparing a land use plan. The county identified recharge areas and worked closely with the two towns to help them prepare the best growth plan possible. The town growth plans balance projected growth with open space preservation around major aquifer recharge areas and raise the resulting land use concerns for those areas inside and adjacent to wellhead protection areas.
1. Waverly demands included in the county water demands.
2. All water demands include residential, commercial and industrial uses.
