Orange County NC Website
Browse       Search
<br /> <br />ORANGE WATER AND SEWER AUTHORITY <br /> <br />A public, non-profit agency providing water, sewer and reclaimed water services <br />to the Carrboro-Chapel Hill community. <br /> <br /> <br />400 Jones Ferry Road <br />Carrboro, NC 27510-2001 <br />Equal Opportunity Employer <br />Printed on Recycled Paper <br />Voice (919) 968-4421 <br />www.owasa.org <br /> <br /> <br />January 23, 2018 <br /> <br /> <br />Mayor Pam Hemminger <br />Town of Chapel Hill <br />405 Martin Luther King Jr. <br />Boulevard <br />Chapel Hill, NC 27514 <br />Mayor Lydia Lavelle <br />Town of Carrboro <br />301 West Main Street <br />Carrboro, NC 27510 <br /> <br />Chair Mark Dorosin <br />Orange County Board of <br />Commissioners <br />Post Office Box 8181 <br />Hillsborough, NC 27278 <br /> <br />Dear Mayor Hemminger, Mayor Lavelle and Chair Dorosin: <br /> <br />We are pleased to submit this annual report on our services, projects and initiatives in calendar <br />year 2017. <br /> <br />Water Supply <br /> <br />The North Carolina Drought Monitor currently classifies central North Carolina including <br />Orange County as being in a moderate drought. The OWASA Board and staff are closely <br />monitoring conditions and we continue to encourage wise use of water resources. <br /> <br />As of January 17th, our reservoirs (Cane Creek Reservoir, University Lake and Quarry <br />Reservoir) were 63% full, which is lower than normal for this time of year. Since 1990, the <br />lowest level for our reservoirs on January 17th was 41% full in 2008, during our last severe <br />drought. <br /> <br />We have a Water Shortage Response Plan and a Drought Response Operating Protocol which <br />guides our decisions to ensure we work proactively with the community in response to <br />increasingly severe drought conditions. Each year, we want to see our water supply capacity at <br />100% by the spring, so we anticipate improvement within the next month or so. If not, we will <br />take action to seek additional conservation from our customers and consider our Jordan Lake <br />supply option. <br /> <br />Advanced Metering Infrastructure/Agua Vista <br /> <br />Significant progress was made last year on our Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) project <br />called Agua Vista to include: <br /> <br />• Wrapping up vendor selection and contract negotiations. <br />• Executing the installation contract with our preferred vendor. <br />• Installing a portion of the network infrastructure. <br />• Substantial completion of software integration. <br />2