The Southern Pines Town Council has approved a $170,000 contract with Hobbs, Upchurch & Associates to design, obtain necessary permits and oversee construction of a 140-million gallon reservoir.

It would be constructed near the town's 20-million gallon off-stream pond at the water treatment plant near Drowning Creek south of Pinebluff.

The council resolution, adopted as part of the consent agenda Tuesday night without discussion, says the raw water reservoir "will provide for an adequate amount of raw water availability for many years to come."

The contract includes fill piping from the existing pump station on Drowning Creek and a reservoir pump station and piping, which would then return the stored water back to the water treatment plant.

Southern Pines' entire water supply comes from Drowning Creek. It nearly ran dry in a severe drought in 2002, requiring the town to build emergency lines to obtain water from Aberdeen and also to reactivate some wells that it had closed when it built a water treatment plant in the early 1980s.

The contract total includes $140,000 for engineering design and $30,000 for assessment, and to obtain regulatory permits, plus cover the administration of change orders and other construction work once the project is actually ready to build.

Sara Lindau can be reached at 693-2473 or by e-mail at slindau@thepilot.com.