Holly Springs, NC -  Thank you for inviting me to be here today to celebrate the dedication of the Town’s new – and first ever – reclaimed water system.  It is the fruition of years of hard work by so many people to address the enormously vexing challenge of water supply.  I don’t have to tell you that the Triangle area remains one of the highest population growth areas in the country – and Holly Springs has led the way!  That’s great news for economic development, but it poses challenges for our infrastructure needs.  In fact, North Carolina’s public water, sewer and storm water utilities will require an estimated $16 billion investment to keep pace with growth over the next 20 years! 

In order to meet increasing demands – particularly for drinking water – we must use our limited resources more efficiently.  Water efficiency is the single most cost-effective source of clean, reliable water, and it can be achieved both through conservation and through water reuse. 

I’m proud that the communities of the Fourth District are meeting these challenges head on.  Here in Holly Springs, you have developed a long-term Master Water Reuse Plan that will reduce the demand for drinking water by enhancing the capacity of your wastewater treatment infrastructure.  The result is that industrial customers like Novartis and the Twelve Oaks community, who are with us here today, can utilize treated wastewater rather than drinking water for many of their high-use needs. 

I want to commend Mayor Sears and the Town Council for their work on the Master Plan.  It represents the kind of innovative long-term planning that every community should strive for.  It will minimize competition for drinking water, reduce the community’s risk during drought or other water shortages, and extend the useful life of the existing potable water treatment and distribution infrastructure.

At a time like this we need especially to stress that investments in water infrastructure are also good for the economy:   Every $1 billion of federal infrastructure funding creates about 30,000 jobs.   So, in addition to the environmental benefits and savings to the Town, projects like this help meet everyone’s number one priority: putting North Carolinians to work.

I am pleased that I was able to help secure federal grant funding for this project through the Environmental Protection Agency, and I’m committed to ensuring that the federal government remains a partner in meeting our water infrastructure needs.  Again, thank you for inviting me to share in your celebration here today.

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