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Reclaimed Water System Celebration

– May 11, 2009

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the Orange Water and Sewer Authority will celebrate completion of the Reclaimed Water System Monday, May 11, 2009 at 10:00 a.m.

Guest speakers David Price, U.S. House of Representatives, and Philip Baddour, North Carolina Clean Water Management Trust Fund, will join us for the event.

Please respond to Jean Feiler by May 1, 2009  at jean.feiler@energy.unc.edu or 919.962.9054

Location

Gary R. Tomkins Chilled Water Operations Center

140 Mason Farm Road, Chapel Hill

Parking

Guests to UNC Campus:  Parking is available in the Dogwood Deck, located directly across Mason Farm Road from the Tomkins Operations Center.  Free parking is available for our guests.   Please inform the parking attendant that you are attending the Reclaimed Water System Celebration.

UNC employees should use campus transit or alternate parking arrangements.  

MAP

Event Location

 

For a complete campus map, see:

About the Reclaimed Water System

The Orange Water and Sewer Authority (OWASA) and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (the University) have partnered to develop a new reclaimed water system that initially will serve the University. The system will provide several important benefits to the Carrboro-Chapel Hill community, the University, and the environment, including:

  • enable OWASA to meet non-potable water needs in a cost-effective manner while freeing up the community’s drinking water supply and treatment capacities to meet essential needs;
  • lower the risk (for all customers) during future water shortages caused by drought or other problems;
  • optimize use of locally-controlled water resources;
  • help defer or eliminate the need for costly water supply and/or treatment facilities; reduce the discharge of pollutants to  streams; and
  • reduce the energy used (and related carbon emissions produced) to meet the community’s water needs.

The new reclaimed water system, which is one of the largest in the State, includes a 600,000 gallon concrete storage tank and a pumping station located at OWASA’s Mason Farm Wastewater Treatment Plant. There are also more than three miles of new reclaimed water lines ranging in size from 6 to 24 inches in diameter.

The University paid the entire cost to build the reclaimed water system, excluding State and Federal grants received for the project. To date, the University’s total system investment is over $10 million. OWASA received $1.6 million in grant funds from the North Carolina Clean Water Management Trust Fund to pay for engineering design and permitting costs. OWASA also received $625,500 from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to help pay for construction of the system.

Initially, the University will use reclaimed water instead of drinking water in cooling towers at chilled water plants on the main campus. The plants produce and distribute chilled water that is used to cool buildings and equipment on the campus.  The reclaimed water will also be used to flush toilets in certain buildings on the campus, and to irrigate athletic fields and landscaping.

 

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