Southport votes to merge water and sewer with Brunswick County

SOUTHPORT, NC (WWAY) — The city of Southport will soon merge its water and sewer services with Brunswick County.

The merger comes after more than a decade of efforts to deal with the city’s water and sewer issues.

The board of aldermen voted during a special board meeting on Wednesday.

The vote will allow the merger to move to the next phase, where the city and county will determine what people and jobs are moved from one side to the other.

Southport mayor Rich Alt said the merger will offer cost savings for city residents.

“Well, it will help a vast majority of the citizens because the sewer and water rates will go down,” Alt said. “Exactly how much they will go down, we don’t know, but for a large part of the population, it could go down, the sewer rates alone could go down between 30 and 50 percent.”

Alt said not everyone in the city will see such large decreases to their bills.

He adds that the new arrangement with the county won’t be implemented until the second half of this year.