(featured image via Town of Chapel Hill)

This month on “Wonderful Water,” join 97.9 The Hill’s Brighton McConnell for a conversation with Amanda Hill, operations supervisor at OWASA’s Mason Farm Road wastewater treatment plant, as they discuss how OWASA continues to serve the community and what the data gathered for and displayed in the 2025 OWASA Wastewater Report Card shows about our infrastructure, habits, and paths toward a sustainable and effective future.

According to OWASA, roughly 7.5 million gallons of wastewater are treated per day — and three billion gallons of that is at the Mason Farm wastewater treatment plant. OWASA’s use and maintenance of hundreds of miles of wastewater pipes under and across the community. Some water is diverted to UNC to be used as reclaimed water for irrigation, toilet flushing, and running large chillers that air condition buildings. Treated wastewater is discharged into Morgan Creek, which eventually makes its way to Jordan Lake, and all these pipes and pathways keep our community growing and water flowing.

In calendar year 2025, OWASA met or surpassed all state and federal regulations regarding wastewater treatment. Click here to see the annual Wastewater Report Card for 2025, and details on the past year’s worth of water treatment.

You can listen to the full conversation below, and visit the Wonderful Water page here for more interviews and stories about the work OWASA does in our community.


Chapel Hill and Carrboro residents use roughly 7 million gallons of water a day, and “Wonderful Water” is a monthly conversation sponsored by the Orange Water and Sewer Authority highlighting its work to keep our community growing and water flowing.


Presented by the Orange Water and Sewer Authority