By Bill Walsh
StarNews Online
PENDER COUNTY -- A number of agencies and foundations have stepped up with grants to help Pender County pay the extra tab for a cutting-edge wastewater treatment plant under construction at the burgeoning Commerce Park near the Pender-New Hanover counties line.
The Melinda K. Knoerzer Adaptive Ecosystem Reclamation Facility is about a year away from being fully operational, according to Pender’s Director of Public Works Michael Mack. The approximately $19 million project costs about $3.5 million more than a traditional wastewater treatment plant, Mack said, but the county has already secured grants to just about cover the additional sum. More to the point, the plant will be very much cheaper to operate -- and much healthier for the environment.
While commerce parks are common in rural communities in North Carolina, Pender County made a decision to try to differentiate itself, Mack said, and the wastewater plant is center stage in that effort. When it is operational, Mack said, the facility will allow the Pender County Commerce Park to attract and maintain tenants who produce high-strength effluent that challenges traditional treatment facilities -- which makes it more expensive for companies to locate where that is the only game in town.
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