This month on “Wonderful Water” join 97.9 The Hill’s Brighton McConnell for a conversation with Monica Dodson, wastewater treatment plant and biosolids recycling manager for OWASA, about the recent release of OWASA’s 2020 wastewater report card, how wastewater is managed and what the average household can do to keep the water flowing in and out of buildings across Orange County.
According to OWASA, about 7.5 million gallons of wastewater are treated per day, running through roughly 350 miles of wastewater pipes across the community before treatment and discharge into Morgan Creek — where the water eventually makes its way to Jordan Lake, continuing the cycle. The annual wastewater report card breaks down what OWASA has been up to, and where its going.
“Certainly one of our biggest highlights is at the wastewater treatment plant is our people,” said Dodson. “… We certainly try to highlight their important work in our report, [which] also highlights our water quality data and, as you mentioned, we’re happy to report that OWASA met or surpassed all federal and state regulations regarding our wastewater treatment.”
Some things are new in the wastewater report card for 2020, however — such as detail on OWASA’s involvement in research surrounding COVID-19.
“Last July, we started providing weekly wastewater samples to the researchers within the North Carolina policy collaboratory and support of wastewater surveillance for COVID-19,” said Dodson. “We’re very proud of our relationship and partnership with local universities, and we always want to support scientific research and water and wastewater so that we can find better ways to operate on behalf of our community.
(featured image via OWASA)
You can listen below for the full conversation between Brighton McConnell and Monica Dodson 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.
