This month on “Wonderful Water” join 97.9 The Hill’s Aaron Keck for a conversation with Nick Rogers, distribution and collection systems assistant manager at OWASA, about the methods and protocols that keep our community’s water supply safe and sound.

“That’s a big part of OWASA,” said Rogers. “We inspect and maintain our infrastructure here, trying to catch problems before they cause major issues. This is important for the community as well. So, commercial residential customers have backflow prevention devices that need to be inspected and maintained yearly. These are typically located in medical facilities, businesses, places that have pools and irrigation system.”

According to Rogers, a backflow prevention device is an important piece of equipment that helps in protecting the community water supply. Backflow can occur when there is a pressure decrease in the system – caused by situations such as a water line break or firefighting operations, essentially any time large amounts of water are pulled from the system. If the backflow prevention device is not working effectively, it has the potential to cause a contamination event.

“Most businesses, most common commercials — especially residential — have backflow devices for their pools and irrigation systems,” said Rogers. “But what they can do is they can look outside to see if they have a backflow device. Most of your businesses residents know if they have one, because what we do is we actually send out a letter. If you haven’t had your backflow device inspected this year, we send out a round of letters that help you to remind you to have that device checked and inspected and make sure it’s properly working.”

With yearly inspections and proper maintenance, even a relatively simple piece of equipment like a backflow prevention device can be a large part of keeping our community water supply safe and functional.

You can listen below for the full conversation between Aaron Keck and Nick Rogers below, and visit the Wonderful Water page here for more interviews and stories about the work OWASA does. 

 

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.

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