****UPDATE: The Do Not Use order was lifted Saturday afternoon.****
Orange Water and Sewer Authority is now directing customers to not use OWASA-provided water until further notice.
Officials say the water supply in the OWASA system has reached “very low levels” after multiple incidents impacting the water safety and availability over the last 24 hours. The shortage has prompted the towns of Chapel Hill and Carrboro to issue a State of Emergency.
The Jones Ferry Road Water Treatment Plant was shut down on Thursday because of an accidental overfeed of fluoride within the water treatment process, which was discovered late Thursday afternoon.
The closure prompted water to be piped into OWASA customers from the City of Durham.
A major water main break was then reported on Friday morning on the northeast side of Chapel Hill near Dobbins Drive.
OWASA is advising residents to use only bottled water until further notice.
Customers are encouraged to use bottled water for drinking, cooking and personal hygiene.
Customers can use bottled water to flush a toilet, after pouring water into the tank. If a toilet does not have a tank, it may be possible to pour water into the bowl to flush.
The water shortage is causing all Chapel Hill – Carrboro City Schools to close early on Friday.
CHCCS will dismiss elementary students at 1:30, middle school students at 2:10 and high school students at 2:55. Any parent wishing to pick up their student earlier is welcome to do that, according to the school system. High school students who walk or drive to school will also be able to leave earlier. The CHCCS closure includes the cancellation of all after-school activities.
Customers rushing to purchase water after OWASA emergency. Photo via Jada Jarillo.
UNC officials have canceled classes and closed offices beginning at one o’clock Friday afternoon due to the water shortage.
The Chapel Hill Public Library and Parks and Recreation offices closed at one o’clock Friday afternoon.
All restaurants that are provided with water by OWASA have been ordered to close by the Orange County Health Department.
The Seymour Senior Center has closed due to the water emergency. The facility will reopen on Monday, if water has been restored.
Local stores are also reporting low supplies of bottled water as residents are rushing to the stores to purchase supplemental water.
University Place closed at 1:30 Friday afternoon.
Traffic has been increasingly intensifying throughout the day and GoTriangle is now providing additional bus support to the area.
A public information line has been established for residents with questions at (919) 245-6111.
Work to restore the Jones Ferry Road Water Treatment Plant to normal operations is ongoing and will be done “as soon as it is safe to do so,” according to OWASA officials.
Water supplies in the surrounding area should be unaffected by the OWASA-specific outage.
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Just wrote a long post and then my browser refreshed and deleted it. Let me just say that this event and the way it’s being handled is not inspiring confidence. Alarming automated phone messages, lack of clarity about what’s happening, confusing directions about water use/non use from different media sources. I’m not feeling well-informed or even safe.
Please do a public service announcement and remind folks not to waste their money (and empty bottled water from the stores) by buying too much bottled water. It is easy to drive to nearby counties and northern orange and fill empty containers with clean water.
Many restaurants and other businesses have had to close loosing thousands of dollars. This is a crisis for Chapel Hill and Carrboro. We need a statement from the mayors.