Andrews – Witnessing devastated infrastructure from Hurricane Helene in 25 counties just to the east, town officials are looking to revive a disused drinking water interconnection between Andrews and Murphy.
The board of aldermen discussed the 10-mile water line connecting water systems in Murphy and Andrews at its meeting Thursday. A multimillion-dollar grant paid for the 12-inch water line between the two municipalities in 1999, said Joel Storrow, an engineer with Asheville-based McGill Associates, the firm that advises the town on engineering and infrastructure.
Cherokee County Commissioner Cal Stiles, who attended Thursday’s meeting, pointed out that the agreement for the interconnect expired in 2022.
The Town of Andrews has struggled with its own water infrastructure, with several water outages and boil-water advisories since September.
The town is preparing a $1.5 million grant-funded project to replace a leaking water tank on the western slope of Leatherwood Mountain south of downtown Andrews. It has also identified four sections of leaking water lines, including 3,800-feet of pipe on Teas Street that will cost $1.2 million to replace, 1,700 feet of water line along Holland Farm Road that will cost $600,000 to replace, as well as faulty pipes along from Cherry Street through Bristol Avenue and along Whitaker Lane.
Outages over the past two months had some people wondering why Andrews wasn’t making use of its interconnect with Murphy water. The water line connects Murphy water to pump stations off Tomotla Road, near the county’s sanitary landfill in Marble and off Marble Plant Road. It ties into the Leatherwood tank in Andrews.
The interconnect is also available for commercial and residential development between the two towns and is an integral component of an industrial park the county is developing just east of N.C. 141 in Marble.
A similar water line along U.S. 64 West was underutilized and had to be flushed regularly until development started to extend from Murphy to Ranger that kept water flowing constantly.
Andrews is at higher elevation than Murphy, so when water moves from Murphy, it must be pumped. When it moves from Andrews, gravity does the work.
The interconnect on the Andrews end is seldom used and must be flushed before it can be used for drinking water. Storrow said the flushing is a 72-hour process.
Murphy Mayor Tim Radford said he’s open to the idea.
“The Town of Murphy is dedicated to providing safe drinking water,” Radford told the Cherokee Scout. “We regularly flush our side of the interconnect to maintain water quality and will share these reports with Town of Andrews. Our goal is to ensure water safety, as excessive turbidity can be unappealing and may pose health concerns. Preventing back flow from causing issues is also a priority.
“We’re open to discussing the interconnect further, but it’s important that both mayors, town manager/administrator, and water treatment supervisors are involved to address any potential liabilities. We will do our best to provide emergency water to Andrews at cost, and I’m sure they would do the same for us if we needed them to. We must ensure this connection benefits both communities safely and responsibly.”