Page 14 - NCRWA Tarheel Pipeline Spring 2013

12 NCRWA.COM | Spring 2013
Ilove water storage tanks, and apparently I am not
the only one. Three people to whom I mentioned
writing this article all immediately said the same
thing, “I love water tanks.” I suppose water tanks
mean different things to different people, but for
me they represent an industry of devoted and
caring people working hard to supply the public
with high quality drinking water to sustain life
and livelihoods. When I drive through a town
and see a water storage tank, I feel an affinity for
a group of people maintaining that water system
and I feel like I could stop and have a conversation
about water with them just about anywhere. Two
friends liked the idea of water tanks because of
the thought of the massive amount of work that
goes into planning, constructing, painting and
maintaining an elevated (or any) water storage
tank. Without meaning to endorse him, I can’t
neglect NC’s own Scotty McCreery, who sings
about a “Water Tower Town” in his popular song -
“In a water tower town, everybody waves, church
doors are the only thing that’s open on Sundays,
word travels fast, wheels turn slow, yeah workin’
hard and livin’ right is the only life we know…”
As one might imagine, aside from the
construction of a water tank, there is quite a
process involved in painting and maintaining
a tank. It can take two to three weeks to paint
the more elaborate water tanks and takes work
by people with nerves of steel, that are unafraid
of heights. The painters use motorized baskets
hung by cables with many safety lines to move
up and down the towers to wash, remove
rust, and prime the tank before painting. As
can be seen in some of my pictures, there is a
natural element besides weather and wear that
presents a problem for a water tank owner and
that is the turkey vulture. They use the tanks
to congregate in their search for carrion, and
I am sure leave behind quite a mess. They are
protected under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act
of 1918, so discouraging them from gathering
on water tanks has become a daunting problem.
Water tanks can be used to express just about
anything a community wants, from promoting
tourism, which can be seen on Warren County’s
tank where they have posted their tourist
website address, to history lessons by painting
the town’s date of incorporation, to indications
of how much water the tank is currently holding,
seen on the town of Norlina’s and Warren
County’s tank. They can promote whatever the
town or area is known for, as in Aurora’s shark
saying “I dig Aurora,” Martin County’s horses,
Zebulon’s Mudcats, Oak Island’s dolphins, or
the high school Red Rams of Kittrell. Then there
are the tanks sporting the community’s beautiful
municipal seal, or just a name written in bold
print or attractive script. However a community
chooses to decorate its water storage tank, what
a source of pride and accomplishment they must
represent for both its employees and its citizens.
For the last few months, I have been taking
pictures of tanks mostly in the eastern part of the
state because that is where I have been working.
I would like to continue to collect pictures from
all over the state and post them permanently on
our website and/or continue to publish them in
our magazine. If you have interesting stories or
images please feel free to call me. Many thanks
to Jim Dotson and Teresa Harris for their help
putting this article together.
BY DEBBIE MANER, NCRWA
WATER
STORAGE
TANKS