KANNAPOLIS — City Council gave final approval Monday to an agreement with Rowan County and Salisbury that could eventually provide Kannapolis with up to 3.1 million gallons of water daily.
Under the agreement, Kannapolis will pay $2.4 million toward constructing a treated-water line from Salisbury and will initially be obligated to buy at least 300,000 gallons of water a day.
The agreement calls for the line to be completed by the end of next year.
Assistant City Manager Mike Legg said Kannapolis will buy only the minimum amount at first — at a cost of around $275,000 a year — using the city’s own, cheaper water for the most part.
“As a general rule, it’s an emergency, future kind of resource,” he said of the water from Salisbury.
And, he said, Kannapolis is not ruling out other water sources. The city could still tap into a Concord plan to buy water from Albemarle, or seek more water from Charlotte-Mecklenburg.
But the partnership with Salisbury and Rowan is timely. The city and county had already been discussing extending a line to southern Rowan to aid drought-stricken Landis and China Grove.
Salisbury will spend $10.5 million to upgrade its water treatment plant, intake and transmission facilities on the Yadkin River. The water line and related facilities will cost around $6.8 million.
Kannapolis will pay about $316,000 a year for 10 years, bringing its total cost for the project, including interest, to more than $3.1 million. The city would own the water line from Beaver Street in Landis to Kannapolis.
Of the 11.1 million gallons of water the line could carry daily, China Grove and Landis may buy up to 2 million gallons each. Rowan County Commissioners have reserved four million gallons a day to serve growth in the southern end of the county.
Salisbury officials say Kannapolis can buy as much as 2 million gallons of water a day without getting the state’s permission for the transfer of water from one basin to another.
The city would need the interbasin transfer certificate to buy the maximum amount.
The council gave City Manager David Hales, who is leaving in November for a job in Oregon; the acting city manager who takes over for him; and the city attorney authority to address any details that need to be negotiated before the agreement becomes final.
In other business, the council heard a brief overview of the city’s emergency preparedness plan given by Fire Chief Larry Phillips.
The city developed the plan after Hurricane Hugo hit the area in 1989. Mayor Ray Moss asked Phillips to review the plan after receiving a number of calls from concerned residents following terrorist attacks Sept. 11 in New York and Washington.
The plan deals mainly with the city’s response to natural or accidental disasters, such as tornadoes or train wrecks. Phillips said officials are updating the plan right now as part of a regular review.
Contact Scott Jenkins at 704-797-4248 or sjenkins@salisburypost.com
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