Orange County NC Website
Information on OWASA's Long-Range Water Supply Plan 10 <br /> January 29,2021 <br /> Page 4 <br /> How much water do we currently have? <br /> OWASA's three local reservoirs can provide approximately 10.5 million gallons per day (mgd) <br /> of water over the course of a year, assuming the drought-of-record. There are plans to expand our <br /> Quarry Reservoir, and when that expansion is completed in approximately 2035, we will have <br /> about 12.6 mgd of water. We expect that our allocation from Jordan Lake can reliably provide <br /> approximately 5 mgd, but we do not have the infrastructure in place to access that water on a <br /> permanent basis and have no guaranteed access to it. <br /> How have we historically used our Jordan Lake allocation? <br /> We have not used our Jordan Lake allocation for water supply purposes. We have received <br /> water from neighboring utilities during water emergencies in February 2017 and November 2018 <br /> and prior to Cane Creek Reservoir coming online. However, the City of Durham and Town of <br /> Hillsborough provided the water we received. Their water comes from local water supplies in <br /> the Neuse River Basin; neither of these communities currently have permanent access to their <br /> Jordan Lake allocations. <br /> We have tested our interconnections with the City of Durham and Town of Cary to make sure we <br /> can receive water from our Jordan Lake allocation if needed. <br /> 2. Evaluate Long-Range Water Demands <br /> How much water do we currently use? <br /> We currently use about 7 mgd of water on an annual average basis. <br /> How much water will we need in the future? <br /> Figure 3 illustrates the amount of water we can obtain from our existing water supplies and <br /> planned Quarry Reservoir expansion along with our 50-year estimated water demands. <br />