Sunset Beach Island Sewer System Gets the Green Light

The Brunswick County Public Utilities Department has announced that homeowners may begin connecting to the new sewer system on the island of Sunset Beach as of Monday April 16th.

Sunset Beach Town Councilman Wilson Sherrill (above) was one of several Town officials on hand at the open house to welcome residents and property owners to the tour. Council members Carol Scott, Lou Devita and Karen Joseph also attended the event with Town Administrator Gary Parker.

Department Director Jerry Pierce conducted an open house tour of the island's pump station near 5th St and East Northshore on Saturday April 14th to let interested island residents and homeowners see the inside setup. Once the station goes into production on Monday, access will be limited to county employees servicing the station.

The station has 3 floors. The basement sits 8 feet under sea level, and includes two pumps (one of which is for backup purposes) along with a 2 million gallon tank. Pierce estimated that, once the majority of the island homes are connected to the system, the peak flow will be roughly 400,000 gallons per day.

The tank can handle 2 million gallons of waste, which is about 5 times the current estimates for peak daily usage on the island once all of the homes connect. One pump is needed; the second was installed for redundancy purposes.

The first floor at street level is basically empty, with some built-in doors to allow servicing of the basement pumps when needed in the future.

On the top level are the six vacuum pumps that make the island's system work, and capture the odors from the waste. The odors are piped through an outdoor pit 8 feet in depth (4 of which is above ground), and work their way through a series of bacteria and mulch before reaching the air.

Brunswick County Public Utilities Director Jerry Pierce explains the vaccum pump system to residents during the station open house.

Resident John Hutchinson listens to the presentation on the 'odor pit' located next to the island's pump station.

Waste from the facility will be piped across the island's causeway and 60 feet under the ICW on to the county's Sea Trail waste treatment plant. As volume grows, the waste can be pumped to the West Brunswick treatment plant in Supply as well.

Mr. Pierce explained that the full system, including the mainland portion, will end up costing somewhere under $28 million. Accessments for each homeowner can not be determined until final bills are in, and Mr. Pierce is now estimating that the bill will probably not go out until sometime in October. His current estimate is approximately $5600 per parcel.

Each homeowner will have one year from Monday to connect to the system without paying the County a "tap-in" fee (which is current $4000). Our recommendation: for those that have had problems with their septic system, go ahead and get your scheduled plumber to make the connection before the end of May. For everyone else, work with your plumber to schedule the transistion for a time when the rental schedule and family schedules won't pressure the work.

Property Owners must sign an agreement with Brunswick County Public Utlities, and then permits are required for the connections, and can be obtained by your licensed plumber at the Sunset Beach Town Hall. Though a number of plumbers will offer their services for this project, we recommend that you use reliable companies that have and will be in the area for years. Three recommended plumbers are:

John Williams Plumbing (910-754-9213)

Plumb Rite Plumbing (910-579-3757)
USA Plumbing (910-880-5473)