Fontana Dam – The search is over.
Jason Duke was introduced as the Town of Fontana Dam’s new water plant operator at its town council meeting Jan. 20.
After spending his entire career in the industry – and working most recently for Andrews – Duke will be in charge of both the town’s water treatment and wastewater plants, replacing Dennis Pilkington in the role. Pilkington will stay on as an hourly employee, focusing primarily on wastewater.
Duke gave a good initial report on the condition of the town’s water plant, which is the newest in the state of North Carolina.
However, he stressed the importance of meticulously maintaining the facility to avoid costly repairs in the future.
“Usually within the first eight years is where it’s good or bad,” Duke said. “In water plants, the first thing that goes is housekeeping, the sweeping and the mopping. Once you give up on that, then it becomes the maintenance, and then after you give up on the maintenance, now we’re looking at $50,000, $60,000, $70,000 fixes.”
Duke also said the quality of the town’s water was better than normal, as is most water from mountainous regions.
“The raw water that we’re treating is pristine,” Duke said. “What we’re treating is not bad. We don’t have any bad impurities, so unless somebody dropped the ball – and dropped the ball bad – we don’t have any issues.”
He said the only major issues in the system were leaks, including a large leak at the town’s intermediate tank near the Fontana Village Campground, and leaks at various cabins and other facilities of the Fontana Village Resort.
Duke said the leaks sacrificed a substantial amount of water and cost the town money.
“We may actually have to go around and do general inspections ourselves, look under the house and check and see if there’s anything running just for our peace of mind,” said Mayor Robert Hardy.
Hardy added that the town had attempted to work with the resort’s maintenance staff on the issue in the past, but that the town would need to push more forcefully to make the arrangement work in the future.
“You think a drip out of your kitchen faucet isn’t much; well, it adds up,” Duke said. “I think if we can get that leak fixed down at the campground, that’s going to be a huge, huge turnaround.”
He said a more efficient system would also cut down on the amount of time the town would need to run the plant – and that during his time in Andrews, he nearly cut the amount of time the plant had to run in half.
The board also discussed the ongoing plans for demolition of the town’s former water plant, which is located on property owned by the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA). The TVA plans to demolish the plant within the year once certain criteria is met.
Duke said there were several bags of anthracite at the old plant that could be sold to other municipalities for approximately $50,000. The material is used as a filtration media to remove impurities from water.
“We’re sitting on money,” Duke said, “As far as holding on to some for us, I don’t see the point in it right now.”
In addition to the anthracite, Duke also said there could be historical value to some of the equipment in the old plant – including redwood filters, which are likely the oldest in North Carolina. He also said some of the older plant’s components could have some scrap value, including cast iron fittings.
“I wonder if those filters have some value to someone, even a museum, like, that’s history,” Duke said. “I’ve never seen that.”