CHAPEL HILL - Rogers Road residents have been asking for better water systems for more than a decade. Last week, public officials continued to talk about helping them, and the Orange County Board of Commissioners actually put some money into it.

Commissioners approved up to $4,000 to test the wells and septic systems at 36 homes along Rogers Road. The county health department will try to corroborate a survey by the UNC School of Public Health that found those systems failing at a number of homes near the Orange County landfill.

The Rogers-Eubanks neighborhood occupied both the county commissioners and the Chapel Hill Town Council early in the week. Carrboro Mayor Mark Chilton also convened a meeting of public officials to discuss potential funding sources for connecting residents to public water and sewer.

The council opened a public hearing on the Rogers Road Small Area Plan Monday night. Among dozens of recommendations, it calls on the town, the county and Carrboro to find money for public water and sewer lines in the area, to extend a road from Rogers to Weaver Dairy Road Extension and to develop a neighborhood commercial district.

Public water and sewer have been the neighbors' priorities, but county staff have been unable to identify a funding source for the project.

Most Rogers Road neighbors already have access to water mains, but not all have connected, perhaps because of the cost. Chilton said an existing affordable-housing trust fund might be able to pay for those.

Far fewer residents have access to public sewer mains. Five more will gain access when Habitat for Humanity runs sewer extensions for its Phoenix Place subdivision off Purefoy Drive. OWASA has identified another 11 properties that could have the option to hook-up to the new sewer lines if local governments make a few short extensions from the Habitat lines at a cost of about $220,000.

The well and septic tests approved by the county last week could reveal problems that would help qualify the neighborhood for state or federal grants to cover that and perhaps the cost of running water mains to a handful of properties that lack access to mains. If the sewer extensions were in place, Chilton said an existing grant program could help homeowners pay for their individual sewer connections.

It's not clear there's any available funding source for the handful of homes lacking access to water mains, unless the survey shows failing wells and financial need.

Chilton said any government funding for water would go toward those homes that pre-existed the landfill. The task force excluded dozens of homes along Meadow Run Court and Billabong Lane for consideration because they came after the county landfill was long-established in that area.

"They kind of knew what they were getting into," Chilton said. "When you look at the price of the housing, it doesn't look like they particularly need help. Although you never know who needs help these days."

Carrboro Alderwoman Jacqueline Gist said Rogers Road neighbors who want water and sewer access will have "one shot" during this process. If they opt out, property owners won't have a chance to change their minds in the future.

Besides approving the water and septic survey, the county commissioners also directed county staff to develop a policy by which the county, in potential partnership with UNC's volunteer Engineers Without Borders, could repair or replace bad wells or septic systems. This would be for homes that can't or won't connect to public water or sewer through the funding sources being explored by the task force.

Transfer station

Residents from Rogers, Eubanks and Millhouse roads also dominated a public comment period at the start of Tuesday's commissioners' meeting, urging the county to keep a solid-waste transfer station off Millhouse Road

Mark Dorosin, senior attorney with the UNC Center for Civil Rights, said abandoning the established process that led to a waste-transfer site on N.C. 54 west of Carrboro in favor of a county-owned site on Millhouse Road would violate the neighbors' constitutional right to due process.

Millhouse Road resident Cathy Schenley reminded the commissioners that they had already promised not to site the trash depot at the current landfill and that the county-owned site is directly behind the landfill.

"Do you think you're fooling anyone by coming in the back door on Millhouse Road?" she said. "I know you're tired of this. We're all tired of this. But you won't have to live next door to your decision. We will."

"We're not going to lay down," said Rogers-Eubanks spokesman Robert Campbell, who visited the White House Friday to address federal officials about how green technology could reduce the need for landfills and protect neighborhoods.

The Town Council has already indicated it favors either the N.C. 54 site or a partnership with Durham, even though a site at Millhouse would cost the town less in hauling costs. The commissioners make that decision though, and it is scheduled for early December.