Federal Funding Case Studies > Lenoir County, North Carolina

Lenoir County, North Carolina

Issue Overview
The State of North Carolina has mandated that water withdrawals from aquifers in a portion of eastern North Carolina be reduced by 75 percent within 12 years, beginning in 2008. The aquifers are over-drafted and continued water withdrawals cannot be sustained. Beyond that, the region has suffered massive job losses, including 26 reported closings affecting 1,359 people and 10 layoffs affecting another 2,498 people since 2000. In addition, the region has an exceptionally high poverty rate and the overall unemployment rate is far above the average. Lenoir County, for example, has a poverty rate of 16.6 percent, an unemployment rate that is 16.5 percent higher than the national average, and a median household income that is only 81 percent of the statewide average. The region is also in one of the 15 most economically challenged congressional districts in America. Without a reliable source of potable water, local industry and jobs would not survive.

Strategy and Result
To address this serious economic and public health problem, the region formed the Neuse Regional Water and Sewer Authority (NRWASA) in 2000. NRWASA is a cooperative partnership of water and sewer service providers from Lenoir and Pitt Counties that are seeking to develop regional solutions for meeting future water resource needs. Current members include the Town of Ayden, Bell Arthur Water Corporation, Deep Run Water Corporation, Eastern Pines Water Corporation, Town of Grifton, City of Kinston, North Lenoir Water Corporation, and the Town of Pink Hill. The agreed to solution was to establish a new, state-of-the-art water treatment system on the Neuse River along with water distribution systems to targeted economic development projects, for a total public project cost of approximately $148 million. NRWASA has worked with federal, state, non-profit and local authorities to raise the bulk of this funding. Specifically, NRWASA worked with its congressional delegation, USDA officials and others to secure approximately $39 million in grant funding from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the State of North Carolina, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the North Carolina Rural Economic Development Center, and the North Carolina Tobacco Trust Fund. The local communities themselves have contributed more than $8 million, and NRWASA has raised nearly $71 million in USDA loans, and another nearly $27 million in North Carolina, Clean Water State Revolving Fund loans, for a total of approximately $145 million.

In less than eight years, the region has gone from facing a critical regional problem to a solution, on the ground, that is now providing potable water to thousands of residents and businesses across a two county region. The region achieved this great success in large measure because of the strong planning effort, the community built the clear and convincing case that the project addressed a critical need, the community sought a regional solution, not a solution that would address only one segment of the impacted area, and because the NRWASA pursued a diverse source of funds to help the community finance the project, all of which engendered strong support from the region’s federal and state lawmakers and agencies. The facility went on-line on September 2, 2008, and is now providing potable water to the citizens of Lenoir and Pitt Counties.