Agenda - 09-16-2003-6a - Laserfiche WebLink

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p7 t ~-- OWASA June 27, 2003 V r~ _°`~ ORANGE WATER & SEWER ALITHORIT~~ ~ ~ ~' ~ ~~ e ~ ~ ~~~ CLuality Servir_e Since 1 ~~~ s, ~.. t [f f " Chair Margaret Brown Orange County Board of Commissioners Post Office Box 8181 Hillsborough, NC 27278 Mayor Michael Nelson Town of Carrboro 310 West Main Street Can-boro, NC 27510 Dear Chair Brown, Mayor Nelson, and Mayor Foy: Mayor Kevin Foy Town of Chapel Hill 306 North Columbia Street Chapel Hill, NC 27516 I am sending this letter to bring you up-to-date on some important and exciting activities that are happening at OWASA. As mentioned before, there are many components to our water conservation and demand program, and I want to review some of those here. New Conservation Ordinances I want to offer our sincere thanks for your recent adoption of the new water conservation ordinances. Carrboro, Chapel Hill, and Orange County adopted essentially identical versions of the conservation standards that the OWASA Board submitted to you several months ago. We believe that the new ordinances are an important part of the sustainability strategy for our community. Wastewater Reclamation and Reuse Wastewater reclamation and reuse has been the focus of a recently completed feasibility study jointly funded by OWASA and the University. Based on our preliminary work, it appears feasible to use substantial amounts of highly treated effluent (reclaimed water) from our Mason Farm Wastewater Plant in the University's cooling towers, Cogeneration Plant boiler, and campus irrigation. As you know, the University represents about 30 percent of OWASA's total water demand -and in the summertime, nearly half of this is for cooling purposes. If implemented, this ambitious program could initially save an average of more than 1.5 million gallons per day of drinking water -and much more during the summertime when our lakes and Treatment Plant are the most challenged. OWASA and the University are currently conducting more detailed piloting work to fut~lher refine the expected costs and benefits of such a program. Initial estimates of the capital costs of such a system are about $13 million, but the long-term savings in both resource value and increased drought protection may be worth even more. We have been actively participating in the University's Carolina North planning efforts, and have proposed that water reclamation and reuse be fully considered as a long-term strategy for meeting the water and sewer service needs of Carolina North as well as the surrounding designated urban transition areas. We look forward to providing additional information about these exciting projects, and will likely ask for your help in seeking State or Federal funding for these efforts. We may also request your consideration of potential ordinances that would require or encourage new development to extend and connect to the reclaimed water system, where feasible. 400 ]ones Ferry Road Equal Opportunity Employer Voice (919) 968-4421 PO Box 366 Printed on Recycled Paper FAX (919) 968-4464 Carrboro, NC 27510-0366 www. owosa. org