The Orange Water and Sewer Authority is set to receive substantial funding from the North Carolina government to help inspect and replace older water lines.

The state’s Water Infrastructure Authority formally approved 70 financial awards requested by several local governments and agencies on Tuesday night, including OWASA. The local agency will receive $3,245,000 in zero-interest loans from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law’s Drinking Water State Revolving dedicated to lead service line replacement requests and service line inventory efforts. While OWASA does not have any known lead water lines, the service agency estimates it has hundreds of galvanized service lines that need to be replaced.

Katie Hall, who is the public information officer for OWASA, said its employees have been working to identify the material of each public and private water service lines in Chapel Hill and Carrboro — and the agency is “thrilled” to have secured the state-funded loans.

“Galvanized lines requiring replacement are those that were once downstream of lead pipes and could contain lead particles due to the ‘stickiness’ of galvanized pipes,” she said in a statement to Chapelboro. “OWASA is working on a plan to replace all galvanized service lines for free for customers; this funding will help that effort tremendously.”

The total amount awarded for water infrastructure through the loan awards was more than $253 million, with the awards largely going toward similar lead service line replacements or funding to address contaminants like PFAS.

“Strong water and wastewater systems are vital for safe drinking water and economic development,” Cooper said in a release. “Thanks to federal funding from the Biden-Harris Administration and state appropriations we’ve made historic investments to rebuild and replace aging systems, especially in rural communities, which will make our state stronger.”

“Replacing aging infrastructure and adding the capacity to remove forever chemicals from drinking water benefits the health and pocketbooks of North Carolinians,” added DEQ Secretary Elizabeth S. Biser. “Funding these projects supports the future success of communities across our state.”

Hall said as OWASA identifies its galvanized service lines, customers are being notified and will receive follow-up information in the fall about the agency’s plan to replace them. She added that each OWASA customer will have to respond and give consent for the changes. The agency will launch a map of Chapel Hill and Carrboro’s service area on its website to show all the properties with galvanized lines.

More information about OWASA’s ongoing service line inventory efforts can be found on the agency’s dedicated webpage to the project. For a list of all projects selected for funding by the State Water Infrastructure Authority, visit the Department of Environmental Quality’s website.

 

Featured photo via the Orange Water and Sewer Authority.

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