FAITH — The Town of Faith continues to operate its water system without the assistance of two wells. Well No. 5 went down in late June after the transmission main degraded. Well No. 2 has been down since July of 2022 and Municipal Engineering has been working to dig and connect a new well since then.

Scott Gardner, who works with Faith Utilities, informed the board that Well No. 5 should be back to being operational by Thursday afternoon.

According to reports given to the board of aldermen, the new well has been dug. Municipal Engineering is stuck in a holding pattern waiting for the North Carolina Department of Water Resources to approve the testing for the new well along with No. 5 and No. 6.

Gardner said during the meeting that the holdup is coming from the state’s belief that the new well is hydraulically connected with Well No. 5 and No. 6 while Municipal Engineering believes the new well is only connected to No. 5. If the state is right, that would require all three of the wells to pump separately, but if Municipal Engineering is correct only No.5 and the new well would have to alternate.

The initial estimated timeframe given to the town by Municipal Engineering was 180-555 days.