The city of Mebane claims that Graham city officials have slow-walked approvals for sewer service to several large, high-profile commercial projects, ultimately delaying the start of construction (see related story, this edition).:
Mebane claims that Graham hasn’t signed state-mandated sewer certifications for “numerous recent projects, delaying progress towards their construction” – including one that has delayed the start of construction on the Buc-ee’s travel plaza, based on a lawsuit that the city of Mebane filed against the city of Graham on Tuesday in Alamance County superior court.
An engineer with the state Department of Transportation recently announced that the timeframe for opening Buc-ee’s in Mebane, which will be its first in North Carolina, has been pushed from 2026 to mid-2027.
Mebane’s city council approved rezoning in early 2024 to allow construction of the 75,440-square foot Buc-ee’s travel plaza on 32 acres near I-85/40 and Trollingwood-Hawfields Road.
Mebane alleges in its suit that Graham officials have either withheld or slow-walked approvals of “Flow Tracing for Sewer Extension” (FTSE) applications for three projects due to an ongoing dispute over whether – and how much – Mebane is legally obligated to pay toward an $84.6 million expansion and upgrade for Graham’s wastewater treatment plant (WWTP).
Any developer wishing to receive sewer service from the WWTP must obtain an FTSE application signed by Graham, which owns the facility.
Mebane asserts that Graham has withheld those approvals – and plans to do the same for future FTSEs – over the ongoing dispute about how much Mebane should pay toward Graham’s WWTP upgrade and expansion.
The FTSEs are part of a state-mandated process intended to certify that existing wastewater treatment facilities have sufficient capacity for any projects that connect new wastewater lines to the system, according to the state Department of Environmental Quality.
The two municipalities entered into an agreement in April 2017 under which Mebane agreed to pay $2.7 million to Graham over 20 years in exchange for treating 750,000 gallons of wastewater per day from Mebane.
The 2017 agreement requires Mebane to contribute a portion of the cost for “agreed-upon” improvements or upgrades to the WWTP and Cherry Lane Pump station. Graham was to be allocated 78.57 percent of the WWTP’s current and future capacity; Mebane, 21.43 of the WWTP capacity; and “treatment and operational costs were distributed in proportion” to the amount of wastewater each municipality generated. Graham is now seeking $18.1 million from Mebane as a 21.4 percent share of the cost toward an $84.6 million upgrade and expansion of its WWTP.
Mebane, however, contends that it was never informed about or involved in planning the $84.6 million WWTP upgrade and is “maximally responsible” to pay Graham no more than $10.7 million under the 2017 wastewater agreement.
A separate agreement between the two municipalities and Alamance County government that led to the creation of the Commerce Park along Cherry Lane in 2013 also obligated Graham and Mebane to share in providing utilities to any future projects served by the WWTP through the Cherry Lane Pump Station, according to Mebane’s suit. The Buc-ee’s site is located within the commerce park.
The 2013 agreement requires Graham to provide sewer services and to “timely review and sign” FTES submitted from Mebane.
“The FTSE must be signed and filed with the state prior to construction, as the installation of underground sewer lines is generally the first physical construction task required in any development project,” Mebane asserts in its suit against Graham. “Water lines are generally located above sewer lines, and surface construction is therefore delayed until the sewer lines are installed.”
Though Graham had “historically” reviewed and signed FTSEs submitted by Mebane within 30 days, Graham hasn’t done that for numerous projects, marking a “change from past practice,” according to the suit.
FTSE for Buc-ee’s signed two months after it was submitted, rather than the customary 30 days.
The FTSE for Buc-ee’s was submitted to Graham on June 27, 2025 but not signed and returned by Graham until August 28, 2025, “delaying the start of construction by at least two months,” Mebane alleges.
“More recently, Mebane and the Koury Corporation have experienced FTSE signature delays in connection with its construction of a 60+ acre mixed-used commercial center,” the complaint states, though it doesn’t specify the date that the FTSE for the Koury project was submitted to Graham.
To facilitate the Koury project, Mebane had planned to reroute service from its GKN Pump Station to the sewer lines extended to Buc-ee’s, allowing the Koury project to receive service from Graham through the commerce park, which also would be governed by a wastewater capacity agreement that the two municipalities entered into in 2017. The Koury project is to be anchored by a forthcoming Target store and located on the opposite side of I-85 along Trollingwood-Hawfields Road.
Mebane needed two FTSEs from Graham for the Koury project: one to reroute service from the GKN Pump Station to the sewer lines extended to the Buc-ee’s site; and a second for the lines from the GKN Pump Station to the Koury site, according to Mebane’s suit.
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Mebane’s city engineer contacted Graham’s assistant city manager in July 2025 to let him know that both FTSEs would be forthcoming. As of early November, neither FTSE had been signed, based on copies of email exchanges between Graham assistant city manager Aaron Holland and Mebane’s engineer Franz Holt that are included in the court file.
Instead, Holland alluded to the ongoing dispute over Mebane’s share of the cost for the WWTP upgrade, writing in one email to Holt, “I am aware that there has been some recent correspondence between [our respective city managers] as it relates to the current WWTP agreement. I will need to check with our manager as to the status prior to signing any agreement.”
In addition to trying to impress upon Graham the need to move forward with the FTSEs for the Buc-ee’s and Koury projects, Holt also pointed to some other forthcoming projects that would need FTSEs, including a final phase of the Cambridge Park subdivision; and two new subdivisions, Hawfields Landing and Stadler Place, according to the email exchanges.
On November 6, Holland acknowledged “the importance of the GKN pump station reroute project” in an email to Holt, but suggested that he “touch base” with Mebane’s city manager to see what steps can be taken to move the project forward.
Graham has refused to act at all on the FTSE for the GKN pump station reroute and is therefore in breach of its contractual duties under the 2017 wastewater agreement, Mebane alleges in its suit.
Mebane is now seeking a court order and “preventive injunction” to compel Graham to “timely review and sign future state-mandated” FTSEs for any projects served by the WWTP, regardless of the dispute over the cost for the WWTP upgrade and expansion.
Mebane is also asking a superior court judge to enter a declaratory judgment, obligating Mebane to pay no more than $10.7 million toward the cost of the WWTP project and loan that Graham obtained to finance it. The city is also seeking a judgment against Graham to recover its costs for filing the lawsuit.
Mebane’s and Graham’s city councils approved motions this week authorizing their respective staffs to “to take appropriate action to resolve the ongoing dispute” over Graham’s WWTP upgrade and expansion.
