Wade Hampton
Community Water System
Background
The Wade Hampton Property Owner’s Association owns and operates a public community water supply and distribution system in Cashiers, North Carolina. The system was designed and permitted for operation by the Public Water Supply Branch of the Division of Water Resources for the State of North Carolina in 1986. The system has been upgraded and modified on several occasions. All revisions have been designed by a licensed professional engineer, reviewed and permitted by the same state regulatory agency.
The water system provides a potable drinking water source to the residences located within the development and to the Wade Hampton Golf Club facilities located within the development.
The daily operation of this community water system is required to be under the control of a NC licensed Water System Operator. The Operator in Responsible Charge (ORC) is required to make daily inspections of the water supply components and the critical elements, i.e. well operations, storage tank conditions, and pumping stations. The ORC records the daily water supply use and chemical dosages into the distribution system. A monthly monitoring report is submitted to the State for review. Periodic water quality testing for a variety of regulated elements is also done by the ORC and reported to the State.
Water Supply
The water supply is provided by groundwater wells located within the development. The original design included four (4) wells. A total of8 additional wells have been drilled since 1998 and several of these are now actively used in the water production and several are not in use. There are four (4) active wells being used at this time. These are well numbers 3,9, 11 & 12. These wells have been tested and will yield approximately 191 g.p.m. The State of North Carolina restricts the use of any well to no more than a 12-hour pumping (withdrawal) period on any given day. So the total available water supply for the Wade Hampton development is approximately 137,520 gallons per day.
The water system currently serves 154 residences, the Wade Hampton Golf Clubhouse, and the golf course/development maintenance facilities. The peak use month water demand occurs during the summer months of July & August. In the summer of 2015 the peak day demand was approximately 78,000 gallons. Based on this water demand experience, the four (4) existing wells will support approximately 270 residences. The maximum expected build-out of the Wade Hampton community is expected to be 231 residences.
Water Storage
As shown on the attached water system master plan the water from each of these active wells is pumped thru dedicated 6-inch pipelines directly to the main water storage tank located off of Sassafras Drive. A schematic diagram of this arrangement is shown on the attached sheet.
The water discharges from the main water storage tank (100,000 gallons) into the water distribution pipe system which was constructed within the development. Each residence served by the system has a separate water service line coming from the main pipelines. The water in the system also flows to a supplemental water storage tank (40,000 gallons) located off of Cherokee Trace. If the water supply-demand on the south end of the distribution system exceeds the capacity of the pipelines to deliver to the residences then the water level in the supplemental tank will start to go down. As the water demand ease back down the water level in the supplemental tank will rise up until it equalizes with that level in the main tank.
Water System Pressure
The water system pressure is maintained by the actual water level in the main storage tank. As the water from the main tank flows out (down the hill) through the distribution system the pressure in the pipe system increases. Due to the topographic changes within the Wade Hampton development, the water system will have a pressure range of30 psi to 125