26 Nov Local Community Celebrates 15-Year Anniversary of Reclaimed Water System
This year, our community is celebrating the 15-year anniversary of the reclaimed water system: a partnership between Orange Water and Sewer Authority and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The system became fully operational in 2009 and is an essential component of OWASA and UNC-Chapel Hill’s efforts to conserve water and increase the community’s drought resilience.
The reclaimed water system involves an extra step to further clean our already highly treated wastewater using a small amount of chlorine following UV light disinfection. The reclaimed water leaving the Wastewater Treatment Plant is so clean, it is indiscernible from treated drinking water by looking at it. However, it is only allowed to be used for specific purposes and human consumption is not permitted. After this advanced treatment, the reclaimed water is pumped through about five miles of special pipes (colored purple to distinguish them from drinking water pipes) to UNC-Chapel Hill, UNC Hospitals, the N.C. Botanical Gardens, and the St. Thomas More Catholic School. During the summer, the system typically treats and distributes around 1.8 million gallons per day (mgd) but is currently designed to process three mdg as demand and consumption needs increase. In the 15 years of the reclaimed water system, OWASA has supplied 3.6 billion gallons of reclaimed water to our partners. That’s enough water to fill all three of our reservoirs!
The reclaimed water system was built by OWASA and UNC-Chapel Hill in response to the record droughts our area experienced in the 2000s. As the system’s largest user, UNC-Chapel Hill uses reclaimed water for irrigation, some toilet flushing, but mostly as evaporative water it its chiller system. According to UNC’s Chilled Water Manager, Lee Baker, the reclaimed water system saves the university approximately 200 million gallons of potable water every year – or a tenth of all the potable water OWASA delivers each year. On average, OWASA delivers over 2 billion gallons of potable water per year to the community.
Funded by UNC-Chapel Hill, a grant from the N.C. Clean Water Management Trust Fund, and a grant from the Environmental Protection Agency, the initial cost to build the reclaimed water system was $14 million. Operating and maintaining the reclaimed water system is paid for solely by the system’s users.
The reclaimed water system is an integral part of UNC-Chapel Hill’s Water Plan, adopted by the University in 2022, that outlines the University’s goals and strategies for reducing its water footprint, which includes maximizing non-potable water use on campus. “Reclaimed water has significantly reduced the amount of potable water used on campus,” says Cindy Shea, Sustainability Director at Sustainable Carolina. “Potable water use is down more than 60% per square foot since 2003.”
Jamie Smedsmo, Water Resources Manager for Energy Services at UNC-Chapel Hill says the reclaimed water system has saved the University and UNC Hospitals $500,000 to $1 million per year for the past three years. “I would say using the reclaimed water system on campus has been a great success and worth the investment,” Smesmdo says. “Using reclaimed water has saved the University a substantial amount of money. There are environmental benefits as well.” UNC has saved over $17 million purchasing reclaimed water instead of potable water.
The community via OWASA also benefits from the reclaimed water system in many ways. “Reclaiming wastewater allows the water treatment plant to treat less water for drinking, which helps to extend the life of our existing water resources,” says Operations Supervisor at the Mason Farm Wastewater Treatment Plant, Travis Rich. “This defers the need for costly additional water supply and treatment facilities, saving OWASA, and our ratepayers money and means we can conserve drinking water for when people really need it.” The reclaimed water system also helps OWASA stay under state-mandated nutrient limits in our effluent (treated water discharged into Morgan Creek) because it allows us to discharge less water after treatment.
OWASA and UNC-Chapel Hill continue to work together to optimize the reclaimed water system for improved performance and sustainability.
OWASA is proud to partner with the community in this effort to conserve potable water. We look forward to continuing to work together to improve, and possibly expand, the reclaimed water system. Here’s to many more years of conserving water and supporting a sustainable community!