This month on “Wonderful Water” join 97.9 The Hill’s Aaron Keck for a conversation with Ruth Rouse, OWASA’s planning and development manager, about where our water comes from and the long-term planning that goes into ensuring its continued availability.
“Our drinking water comes from Cane Creek Reservoir and University Lake, our two primary drinking water supplies,” said Rouse. “… We also have a small quarry reservoir west of Carrboro on Highway 54 that holds about 200 million gallons of water, and we have plans to expand that quarry reservoir, so in about 10 years, 10 to 15 years, that will actually provide about 2 billion more gallons of water for us.”
According to Rouse, OWASA customers currently use about 7 million gallons of water a day — a number that isn’t too far off from historical usage rates.
“We have a really water-conscious community already, and our customers use about the same amount of water today that they did 30 years ago, which is incredibly impressive,” said Rouse. “And on top of that, we did assume in our long-term demand projections that we’d get additional conservation.”
The consideration of ongoing conservation is a crucial part of OWASA’s 50-year Long-Range Water Supply Plan that will support reliable access to high-quality water in our community by making efficient use of our current water supplies as well as consistent investments in water treatment infrastructure.
“We’ve evaluated a lot of data and we’ve analyzed 13 supply, as well as conservation-type, options to meet our long-term needs,” said Rouse. “And now it is time for us to hear from the community about those options so we can incorporate their feedback as we move forward here.”
Those options and opportunities for community members to provide feedback and learn more about the planning process are a OWASA board of directors meeting on November 12, as well as a webinar featuring a deep dive into the long-term supply plan taking place on November 17 at 6:00 p.m.
You can listen below for the full conversation between Aaron Keck and Ruth Rouse 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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