City of Creedmoor looking to Upper Tar River For New Wastewater Discharge
PTRF has learned that the City of Creedmoor, located in the Neuse River basin, is taking steps to build a new wastewater treatment plant and discharge pipe in the Tar River Basin in Granville County. The City has had scoping meetings with State permitting agencies and is seeking admittance to the Tar River Basin Association (wastewater dischargers in the basin). The proposal is for a 1.15 million gallons per day discharge of wastewater to the Tar River in the vicinity of highway 15. View Map.
PTRF is extremely concerned over this proposal. The City is currently served by the South Granville Water and Sewer Authority. SGWASA has plenty of capacity to continue to meet the needs of the City of Creedmoor. The upper Tar River region is characterized by good water quality that serves as the drinking water source for hundreds of thousands of residents downstream. During dry times, flow in this section of the river can drop below 1 foot in depth. This section of the Tar River supports a diverse aquatic population including the federally listed endangered dwarf wedgemussel as well as many other state and federal threatened aquatic fish, mussel and insect species. Two Significant Natural Heritage Areas are also located downstream of the proposed discharge.
Due to the numerous alternatives that the City currently has for its wastewater needs, the potential significant impacts to the health of the upper Tar River, and the fact that the proposed discharge to the Tar would result in an interbasin transfer of water from the Neuse, PTRF cannot support this proposal.
