By Nicole Bowman-Layton

EDENTON — Chowan County commissioners will meet Tuesday, Sept. 1, 2026, to discuss water system improvements required as part of the county’s proposed reverse osmosis water treatment plant and review the rates and fees currently paid by water customers.

The Chowan County Board of Commissioners will hold a special meeting at 5 p.m. Sept. 1 in the second-floor training room of the Chowan County Public Safety Center, 305 W. Freemason St. in Edenton.

According to the meeting agenda, commissioners will discuss “system improvements as required as part of R/O Plant Project.” County Manager Kevin Howard is then scheduled to review current water rates and fees with the board.

Howard will also review solid waste management fees before commissioners and county staff discuss next steps.

The special meeting comes as Chowan moves further into a project that has been discussed in various forms for more than a decade and has evolved from a proposed upgrade to the county’s water treatment system into a potential regional water source.

The 2017 Chowan County-Edenton Joint Land Use Plan noted that county officials had discussed construction of a reverse osmosis plant “in recent years.” According to the plan, the estimated cost of an RO plant in 2015 was $30 million or more, and the county was not pursuing the project at that time because of the cost.

The land use plan also said the county’s existing Valhalla Water Treatment Plant and wells had sufficient capacity to meet anticipated needs at the time, although the system had limitations in storage capacity. The plan identified additional storage, water lines and improvements to the Valhalla plant among potential future needs.

The RO proposal eventually returned as county officials continued looking at the future of the water system. State infrastructure funding records from 2022 and 2023 identify a Chowan County Reverse Osmosis Water Treatment Plant project, and commissioners have received updates in recent years as engineering, testing and funding efforts have moved forward.

The county has also begun examining what the project could mean for its water rates.

During a November 2024 special meeting, Rivers and Associates presented commissioners with the results of a Water System User Charge System study. Engineer Scott Godefroy told the board the study was intended to determine the rates necessary to fund ongoing water system operations and respond to future changes in operations and water demand.

Godefroy emphasized during that presentation that the methodology being discussed was not itself a proposed schedule of future rates. Instead, he described it as a way for the county to calculate rates based on the financial needs of the water system.

Howard has also previously discussed the relationship between the rate study and the RO project.

During an earlier commissioners’ discussion, Commissioner Larry McLaughlin asked whether the project could result in incremental rate increases. Howard said the study would allow the county to keep rates in line with the needs of the water system and the project. Commissioner Ellis Lawrence said the study should help determine whether incremental increases are necessary.

Tuesday’s published agenda does not call for commissioners to adopt a water rate increase. It calls for Howard to review the county’s current water rates and fees before the board discusses its next steps.

Meanwhile, planning for the RO facility itself has continued.

During a May 2026 update, Howard told commissioners the county was planning a regional plant capable of producing 4 million gallons of treated water per day, with a gross capacity of 5 million gallons per day.

Howard reported that six test wells installed as part of the project had demonstrated sufficient capacity and water quality. Based on testing completed to that point, he said engineers did not anticipate the need for exceptional pretreatment or post-treatment systems beyond typical pH adjustment and chlorine disinfection.

Reverse osmosis uses membranes to remove dissolved minerals and other substances from water. Howard has previously told commissioners the process would allow the county to remove substances that its existing treatment process cannot.

The treatment process also produces a concentrated waste stream that must be disposed of. Chowan’s proposal calls for piping that wastewater to the Albemarle Sound, where it would be discharged through a multi-port diffuser.

During the April 2026 update, Howard said preliminary modeling indicated the proposed system should achieve the dilution necessary to address concerns during the state permitting process. Additional modeling and an engineering alternatives analysis were expected to precede an application for the required discharge permit.

The project has also grown into a potential regional water source.

Howard told commissioners in April that Chowan hopes eventually to sell treated water to the Town of Edenton and potentially Perquimans County. Additional production wells and treatment equipment could be added as demand increases and regional partners participate.

The plant could also be constructed in phases. Howard said three wells would be sufficient to supply an initial plant, while the additional well sites would provide room for future expansion.

The project’s expected timeline has changed considerably from earlier plans. Howard told commissioners in April that a completion date once projected around 2040 had moved to approximately 2030.

How Chowan pays for the project and the associated improvements to its existing water system remains part of the planning process. Howard told commissioners in April that the county still needed to address the unfunded portion of the project and that its engineering agreement included seeking funding through the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Tuesday’s special meeting could provide a clearer picture of what improvements will be required elsewhere in the county’s water system as the RO project moves forward — and how those needs fit into what Chowan County water customers currently pay.

The meeting is open to the public.