Suffolk News-Herald

Some two years after Suffolk and Isle of Wight County officials stood on the Chuckatuck Creek bridge and celebrated the completion of a water pipeline connecting them, public utilities crews from both municipalities Wednesday were jointly working on a project to upgrade the service.

Work was being done Wednesday to install a new valve to better control the water pressure from the line that runs from Suffolk to service the Benn’s Church and Eagle Harbor areas of Isle of Wight County.

The valve is located along Route 17 in Eclipse.

&uot;Basically, we have a pressure control valve between our system and northern Isle of Wight,&uot; Suffolk Public Utilities Director Al Moor said Wednesday. &uot;We’ve updated the valve to give us more telemetry – to allow Isle of Wight to better control its pressure and to provide us with more information on pressure and flows so that we can more efficiently operate the system.

The two communities joined in 1998 to form the Western Tidewater Water Authority. Under an agreement which led to the construction of the pipeline, Suffolk sells water to the authority, which in turn sells it to Isle of Wight. Moore said Isle of Wight currently receives about 250,000 gallons a day through the line.

At the 2002 dedication, then-Suffolk Mayor E. Dana Dickens III hailed the pipeline’s completion as an example of the type of regional cooperation it will take to move the region forward. He also noted then that water would be one of the biggest issues facing Hampton Roads in the future.

Moor said it helps to have all parties involved present when major work is done on the line.

&uot;It’s good to have everyone involved with both systems when you working on an element of this nature,&uot; he said. &uot;Everything went smoothly today and the water was only off a short time.&uot;