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Now that High Point has approved, the six-government partnership that owns Randleman Reservoir can begin building a water plant to tap the region's newest water-supply lake.

But don't expect to be quaffing water from it anytime soon.

The new plant isn't likely to come on line for almost four years, long after the current drought is a distant memory.

First, the $60 million plant must be approved for construction, financed and built. Then it must be tested to make sure it is producing water of suitable quality.

If everything moves smoothly, the plant could be under construction in early 2008, said John Kime, executive director of the Piedmont Triad Regional Water Authority that built the lake straddling the Guilford-Randolph county line.

"We still have to complete the bond documents and financing," Kime said. "The estimates are it would take about 30 months to build from the time we're told to start."

Plans for the new plant must be re-permitted by regulators because state government's initial approval has expired, Kime said. The project won initial approval several years ago, with a goal of bringing it on line in 2005.

"We got the plant permitted, but then things kind of stagnated," Kime said.

It was not built back then because the various local governments had to work out final details, such as the agreement that the High Point City Council approved this week.

That agreement had been approved previously by the reservoir's other five partners — Greensboro, Jamestown, the cities of Archdale and Randleman, and Randolph County.

With the region gripped by drought, a renewed sense of purpose seems to have taken hold among project partners, Kime said.

The water-plant agreement determines how the project will be financed. The various local-government partners are committed to buying a percentage of the project's initial 12 million gallons of water per day.

Greensboro City Council member Tom Phillips said the plant already has been designed and is headed toward getting the final go-ahead from state officials.

"The plans have been submitted to Raleigh and we've gotten comments back," said Phillips, also a member of the water authority's board of directors.

Because state water administrators permitted the plant once before, they are familiar with those plans, Kime said. But the plans need some updating to comply with new water-plant rules that took effect since the first permit was approved, he said.

Five partners in Randleman Reservoir had signed off on the water-plant agreement without great debate. But officials in High Point, which does not need new water sources as badly as Greensboro and some other partners, raised questions that required numerous revisions.

Former High Point Mayor Arnold Koonce said it was important for that city's leaders to have an agreement they could fully support.

"I'm glad we got the language right and we're over that hurdle," said Koonce, also a veteran member of the water-authority board.

The next steps will be deciding how to finance the water plant, then what governmental organization would supervise its construction and eventual operation, Phillips said.

Greensboro has offered to issue bonds on behalf of the water authority, Phillips said. That could lower costs because of Greensboro's strong bond rating, meaning that money could be borrowed for the project at a lower interest rate.

Koonce said Greensboro and High Point will use a shared pipeline from the new water plant to the intersection of U.S. 220 and N.C. 62, where the two will build separate lines to their respective cities.

The lake has been 70 years in the making, starting in 1937 with the first serious discussion by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers about building a dam across the Deep River south of High Point to help with flood control.

The federal project was scrapped in 1985. But the project was reborn as a regional effort with a smaller lake focused on water supply.

Contact Taft Wireback at 373-7100 or twireback@news-record.com