Published: Nov 19, 2005 12:30 AM

More secluded site rejected for 4 towns' sewage plant

Toby Coleman, Staff Writer

Four Wake County towns could build a new sewage treatment plant in a more isolated area 
without significantly adding to the cost of the project, documents released by Cary officials 
Friday show.

Apex, Cary, Holly Springs and Morrisville are pushing a plan to build the plant within 1,000 feet 
of 23 homes in New Hill, an unincorporated community near the Shearon Harris Nuclear Plant
 in southern Wake County.

Earlier this fall, representatives of the towns met behind closed doors to discuss moving the 
proposed plant a couple of thousand feet west, so it would be within 1,000 feet of only one 
home, according to documents distributed at the meeting.

But the officials ended up rejecting the idea after looking at a comparison of sites prepared by 
consultants. Among other things, the consultants wrote that moving the plant west would 
increase the project's price from $516 million to $519 million -- less than 1 percent -- and limit 
the towns' ability to expand the plant in the future. Although the vote to uphold the existing site 
in New Hill marked another defeat for opponents of the plant, the meeting showed that the 
project still lacks the complete support of the elected officials responsible for financing it. In 
particular, members of Apex's Board of Commissioners are uneasy about plans to build the plant 
in New Hill.

Apex Commissioner Mike Jones found the more isolated land for the plant and asked Cary 
Mayor Ernie McAlister to call the meeting, which was held Sept. 20.

"I won't say I was satisfied with the outcome," Jones said. "I still would prefer that it be built on 
one or another of the alternate sites."

Jones has been lobbying against the towns' plans to build the plant in the middle of New Hill for 
months because he thinks it is too close to the community's churches, homes and now-vacant 
commercial hub.

It was a quiet effort, especially compared with that of New Hill residents who picketed the Apex 
and Cary town halls and Apex Commissioner Bill Jensen, who publicly called on the towns to 
build the sewage plant elsewhere. Instead of rallying against the plan, Jones looked for an 
alternate site for the plant. Eventually, he found an isolated 197-acre stretch of land just west of 
the 212-acre farm now targeted for the plant.

After he found the land, Jones said he approached McAlister at a meeting and asked him to get 
the towns' consultants to evaluate his proposal.

McAlister said he agreed "as an accommodation" to a fellow elected official who had found a 
piece of land the towns had not considered before.

"There was never any serious consideration" given to moving the plant, he said. Instead, the 
towns just agreed to evaluate Jones' site using the same criteria as the other 29 locations 
considered, McAlister said.

Paul Barth, president of the New Hill Community Association, criticized the towns for rejecting 
Jones' proposal without holding a public meeting.

"Again, it goes to the secretive nature that this whole process has taken," he said. "Why would 
they not involve the New Hill people in a process that involves their town? What are they so 
afraid of?"

Staff writer Toby Coleman can be reached at 829-8937 or tcoleman@newsobserver.com.
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