The Wagram water deal is looking like a bold idea whose time has come and gone - at least as a solo Pinehurst venture.

It would have been highly appropriate, not to mention emotionally satisfying, if the plan to acquire the private water and sewer complex down in Wagram and put it to municipal use up here could have been brought to -fulfillment as a kind of tribute to George Lane, the late village mayor who tirelessly promoted the idea before his recent death.

But alas, that apparently is not to be - at least judging from recent comments by Village Manager Andy Wilkison, who said the proposed $5.5 million purchase "has stalled out, probably permanently." The reason: There are simply too many parties involved, with too many legal and political t's to cross and i's to dot.

State law requires the Scotland County commissioners to sign off on the arrangement - something they are in no hurry to do, given that it involves transferring valuable and ever-scarcer H20 from its county to an adjacent one farther upstream in the Lumber River basin. And the owner of the now-dormant facility, WP Properties Wagram, has lost patience and is now trying to interest other corporations in acquiring the facility.

In an interview, Wilkison held out the possibility that "another public entity" could possibly still step in and pursue the purchase. Though that sounded like a reference to the Moore County government, our own commissioners have generally seemed less than enthusiastic about the idea.

Other Possibilities Remain

But it's too early to flush the whole concept of gaining possible access to Lumber River water.

One entity, still relatively new and just getting off the ground, may offer some promise. Under the leadership of Moore County's own state Rep. Jamie Boles, a regional approach to water is being explored with participation by other local governments whose jurisdictions already draw from the Lumber Basin.

Moore County does not abut the Lumber River proper, but it does draw water from Drowning Creek, a tributary. In his organizational effort, Boles included Scotland, Hoke and Robeson counties and the city of Laurinburg as well as Moore.

Representatives of those local governments have held a couple of meetings already and have expressed enough interest that application has been made to the Lumber River Council of Governments for a grant to study the concept.

A System of Sharing?

What propels this idea further is the movement to -protect valuable water resources not by rationing but by a system of sharing. Boles is convinced that the regional approach is the wave of the future.

One big question raised by the Pinehurst effort would continue to confront a broader approach. That is the -distance from Moore County to the utility facilities in Scotland County and the estimated cost of enlarging and upgrading those facilities to serve outlying areas. The answer could well lie in the results of a study by -hydrological engineers.

Another question may well focus on the feasibility of building a new plant in another location, rather than upgrading an old plant to meet the needs of several thirsty communities.

Though recent and frequent rainfalls have alleviated our drought anxieties, the memory of drought remains painfully sharp. This is an ideal time to explore new ideas and cooperative measures to meet Moore County's water needs today and for years to come.