HomeMy WebLinkAboutAgenda 02-20-24; 4-b - OWASA Annual Update Presentation 1
ORANGE COUNTY
BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
ACTION AGENDA ITEM ABSTRACT
Meeting Date: February 20, 2024
Action Agenda
Item No. 4-b
SUBJECT: OWASA Annual Update Presentation
DEPARTMENT: Board of County Commissioners
ATTACHMENT(S): INFORMATION CONTACT:
OWASA Quarterly Report Laura Jensen, Clerk to the Board, 919-
245-2130
Andrea Orbich, Orange Water and
Sewer Authority, 919-537-4217
PURPOSE: To receive a presentation and information from the Orange Water and Sewer
Authority (OWASA) on recent activities.
BACKGROUND: At the beginning of each calendar year, OWASA representatives appear
before the Board of Commissioners to make a presentation on recent OWASA activities.
OWASA Board Chair Bruce Boehm, Orange County appointees Jody Eimers and Kim Piracci,
and Executive Director Todd Taylor will present the annual update.
FINANCIAL IMPACT: There is no financial impact associated with this item.
SOCIAL JUSTICE IMPACT: There is no Orange County Social Justice Goal impact associated
with this item.
ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT: There is no Orange County Environmental Responsibility Goal
impact associated with this item.
RECOMMENDATION(S): The Manager recommends that the Board receive the presentation
and information and provide any feedback as necessary.
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Orange Water and Sewer Authority
0WASA
Our communitv's trusted partner for clean water and environmental protection.
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February 1, 2024
Mayor Jessica Anderson Mayor Barbara Foushee Chair Jamezetta Bedford
Town of Chapel Hill Town of Carrboro Orange County Board of
405 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd 301 West Main Street Commissioners
Chapel Hill, NC 27514 Carrboro, NC 27510 Post Office Box 8181
Hillsborough, NC 27278
Dear Mayor Anderson, Mayor Foushee, and Chair Bedford:
We are pleased to submit this report on our services, projects, and initiatives since October
2024. This report includes updates on the following items:
1. Annual Water Quality and Wastewater Report Cards
2. Temporary Drinking Water Disinfection Changeover
3. Care to Share Program
4. PFAS Treatment and Monitoring
5. Drinking Water Service Line Inventory
6. Jordan Lake Western Intake Partnership
7. WSMPBA - Water and Sewer Management, Planning, and Boundary Agreement
8. Key Infrastructure Investments
9. Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging Program
10. OWASA Board of Directors
Annual Water Quality and Wastewater Report Cards: Every year, OWASA shares report cards with
the community that detail our prior year's compliance with federal and state water quality and
wastewater treatment rules. These reports include information to help customers understand
how their drinking water and wastewater are managed, treated, and tested, and guide
customers to further information on topics of interest. The 2023 report cards on wastewater
and water quality will be available online at owasa.org on February 28 and March 21,
respectively. OWASA customers will receive notice about the availability of these reports on
their monthly bill.
Temporary Drinking Water Disinfection Changeover: In our continued commitment to provide
high-quality drinking water, OWASA will temporarily change our drinking water disinfection
process during the month of March from the use of chloramines to the use of chlorine only.
Customers may notice a change in taste or odor due to the use of chlorine, rather than
400 Jones Ferry Road,Carrboro,NC 27510 919-968-4421 info@owasa.org @OWASA_NC www.owasa.org
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OWASA Quarterly Report
February 1, 2024
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chloramine, for drinking water disinfection during this time. This annual system disinfection
switch is recommended by the N.C. Department of Environmental Quality and is standard
practice among water providers. Customers can continue enjoying their drinking water during
this time. If you hear from concerned residents of your town our county, please share our
contact information and we will be happy to help them: info@owasa.org or 919-537-4343.
Care to Share Program: As in years past, OWASA promoted donations to the Care to Share
Customer Assistance Program at the onset of the 2023 holiday season. We are grateful for the
assistance provided by the Towns and County in promoting this important program. In 2023,
community members donated a total of$27,758 to the Care to Share Program, one of the
highest years of giving in the program's history. The program continues to be a critical lifeline
for households experiencing financial hardship. Last year, over 900 households received
assistance paying their water and sewer bill. OWASA's Strategic Plan includes an initiative to
evaluate and update the Care to Share Program with the goal of increasing the adequacy and
accessibility of customer assistance funding. The OWASA Board of Directors will be working
with OWASA staff in the coming years to advance this initiative.
PFAS Monitoring and Treatment: Per- and Poly-fluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) remain a
frequently covered topic in news, continuing to spark discussions about how we can reduce
PFAS exposure in all areas of our lives to protect public health. The EPA's proposed drinking
water regulations would set the first limits on PFAS in treated drinking water.
This quarter, following testing completed this past summer, OWASA made an adjustment at our
Jones Ferry Water Treatment Plant (WTP) that is expected to optimize our ability to reduce
PFAS levels using our current treatment process without sacrificing other treatment objectives.
We also finalized plans for a new treatment process, including completion of small-scale testing
of two industry-proven technologies for PFAS reduction in drinking water—Granular Activated
Carbon (GAC) and Ion Exchange (IX). This testing simulated the long-term performance of each
technology, and showed the duration of effectiveness of each before changeout of the
materials would be necessary.
With planning work completed, OWASA will soon engage an engineering consultant to begin
detailed design of the new treatment process, including a pilot study to identify the best
technology or combination of technologies. This study will run for six to 14 months at the Jones
Ferry Road Water Treatment Plant, and the results will help identify the best long-term
treatment option for PFAS. We expect that construction may start in late 2025 and take 24 to
30 months to complete.
While our primary focus is on drinking water at this time, we continue to study PFAS holistically
through our treatment processes—from our source waters to our biosolids—and participate in
research that will support the science needed to reduce PFAS throughout our operations.
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February 1, 2024
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OWASA's Board of Directors approved a PFAS community communications plan in December
2023 that will guide OWASA's community engagement and education around PFAS. The plan is
intended to establish a common understanding of OWASA's actions to address PFAS in our
community's drinking water with three primary objectives:
• Our community knows how to access accurate, timely information on PFAS in drinking
water;
• PFAS information shared with the community is accurate; and
• PFAS information we share is valuable to our community.
The plan, which will launch this month, includes collaborations, public meetings, publications,
and web content.
Drinking Water Service Line Inventory: The EPA's Lead and Copper Rule was revised in 2023
and requires all water systems to inventory both the public and private service lines in their
service and develop a plan for the replacement of any lead pipes discovered through this
process. Service lines are the drinking water pipes that connect properties to the water main
that is typically under the street. The rule also requires the identification and replacement of
any galvanized lines that might have potentially been downstream of lead pipes in the
distribution system at some point in time.
Based on our work so far, we confirmed that about 48% of private service lines are not lead,
and we launched an effort to verify the material make-up of the remaining 11,962 private
service lines. To date, OWASA has verified the material for over 2,230 these unknown service
lines, informed customers when galvanized material was found, and provided information on
what actions to take to protect their health. Since the beginning of the inventory program,
OWASA has received over 100 reports from customers who have self-verified their service line
material using instructions in mailings and on our website. To date, no lead lines have been
identified in our service area through this effort. A comprehensive online map is under
development that will allow customers to access information about their property's service line
materials. In December 2023, OWASA was awarded a $1 million no-interest loan by the N.C.
Department of Environmental Quality to support our inventory of service line materials across
our service area.
Jordan Lake Western Intake Partnership: OWASA joined the Jordan Lake Western Intake
Partnership in 2022, partnering with the Town of Pittsboro, City of Durham, and Chatham
County to ensure a secure water future for our communities. Although there is no near-term
need for additional water supply in our community, OWASA's engagement in the partnership
makes certain that we will have access to our allocation of Jordan Lake water when needed.
The project is in early design and permitting stages for a new raw water intake, raw water
transmission, water treatment, and drinking water transmission infrastructure. The Partners are
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also developing an interlocal agreement, to be completed this spring, regarding the operation
of the facilities that will deliver treated drinking water from the reservoir.
A rezoning application was submitted to the Chatham County Planning Department by the
Partners. If approved, it would allow water treatment facilities to be constructed at Jordan
Lake. The Partnership anticipates public hearings on the application this quarter and
completion of the rezoning process in the first or second quarter of this calendar year.
Water and Sewer Management, Planning, and Boundary Agreement (WSMPBA): In fall 2023,
OWASA provided analysis to help inform consideration of the proposed WSMPBA expansion.
The analysis estimated the impact of the proposed WSMPBA expansion on the available
capacity in our water and sewer systems. Using development density assumptions made in
conjunction with Town of Chapel Hill planning staff, this analysis found that the buildout
development of the proposed expansion area would require 7,700 feet of sewer segments to
be upsized along Morgan Creek, and 4,800 feet of water main to be installed along Highway 15-
501. These two improvements would be completed as part of OWASA's Capital Improvements
Program some time before buildout. Extensions of sewer mains to the proposed expansion area
would be completed and paid for by developers.
Key Infrastructure Investments: As we head into 2024, OWASA is preparing for several capital
improvement projects.
Construction for the West Rosemary Street Water Main Replacement project will begin in
summer 2025. Preparatory work, including utility location and surveying, will begin this year.
The improvements include replacing 3,100 feet of 70-year-old pipe between Merritt Mill Road
and North Columbia Street. Brief water outages will occur as services are switched from
temporary lines to the new line. A public meeting will be scheduled for fall 2024 to hear
community questions and concerns about the project.
Construction on the Morgan Creek Sewer Interceptor pipeline will begin in spring 2025.
Approximately 2,300 feet of large gravity sewer mains will be upsized to accommodate
increased flows. OWASA coordinated with University of North Carolina Botanical Garden and
the Town of Chapel Hill as well as neighbors in the area ahead of this project. We anticipate
that construction will last 15 months, but a second phase of the project is in design and
expected to follow shortly thereafter.
In the Ridgefield-Briarcliff neighborhood (off of Ephesus Church Road), 17,600 feet of pipe will
be replaced beginning fall 2024. Construction is expected to take 18 months. A public meeting
will be held this summer to discuss the project. Survey and utility locate work to prepare for the
project is underway.
Several other smaller infrastructure upgrades will be made across the service area in the
coming year. OWASA's standard of service is to notify affected customers before work begins to
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ensure they are prepared for any impacts to their daily lives and know who to contact with
questions or concerns.
Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging Program: OWASA held organization-wide training
sessions on Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging (DEIB) in the last quarter of 2023 and in
January, including a specialized session for board members and the first sessions of new
training for employees. Training was led by consultants and OWASA's new Diversity, Equity,
Inclusion, and Belonging Specialist. OWASA's updated action plan for growing DEIB across the
organization is expected to launch this spring, which will seek to advance equity and inclusion
for OWASA employees through programming, policy and practice.
OWASA Board of Directors: The Board of Directors welcomed new board member Susana
Dancy in December. Appointed by the Town of Chapel Hill, Susana took her oath of office on
December 6. Susana's career spans work in real estate investment, restoration, and
rehabilitation. She is a founding board member of the Incremental Development Alliance and is
former chair of Chapel Hill's Community Design Commission. She holds a graduate degree in
city and regional planning from UNC-Chapel Hill.
OWASA will have openings on its Board of Directors this year to be appointed or reappointed by
each local jurisdiction —Carrboro, Chapel Hill, and Orange County. Letters were sent to local
government partners on January 16 with information to assist with recruiting and selecting
members for appointment. You can also find information on our website.
We appreciate your interest and action in appointing Board members as we continue critical
work in the months ahead. OWASA embraces diversity and inclusion in everything we do, and
we encourage all interested candidates to apply for Board appointments. The only qualification
needed is a genuine commitment to serve the community.
We would be happy to provide more detailed information on the items above or other topics of
interest as desired. Please feel free to contact our Executive Director, Todd Taylor
(ttaylor@owasa.org or 919-537-4216), or me.
Sincerely,
r
Bruce Boeh , Chair
Board of Directors
cc: Mr. Chris Blue, Chapel Hill Town Manager
Ms. Bonnie Hammersley, Orange County Manager
Ms. Marie Parker, Interim Carrboro Town Manager
OWASA Board of Directors
Todd Taylor, OWASA Executive Director