Monday (May 11)
10 a.m.
Gary R. Tomkins Chilled Water Operations Center
140 Mason Farm Road
UNC-Chapel Hill campus
Monday (May 11)
10 a.m.
Gary R. Tomkins Chilled Water Operations Center
140 Mason Farm Road
UNC-Chapel Hill campus
U.S. Rep. David Price and Philip Baddour, chair of the North Carolina Clean Water Management Trust Fund, will speak at this event marking the completion of the new reclaimed water system at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Both Price and Baddour helped obtain grant funds for the system, which has been operating successfully for about one month. The event is co-hosted by Carolina and the Orange Water and Sewer Authority (OWASA). Roger Perry, chairman of the UNC Board of Trustees, and Ed Kerwin, OWASA executive director, will also speak. A tour of the Tomkins Center will be available following the ceremony.
Reclaimed water is wastewater that has been purified to a level suitable for further use but not for drinking. The system will provide several important benefits to the Carrboro-Chapel Hill community, the University and the environment, including:
- enable OWASA to meet non-potable water needs in a cost-effective manner while freeing up the community’s drinking water supply and treatment capacities to meet essential needs;
- lower the risk (for all customers) during future water shortages caused by drought or other problems;
- optimize use of locally-controlled water resources;
- help defer or eliminate the need for costly water supply and/or treatment facilities; reduce the discharge of pollutants to streams; and
- reduce the energy used (and related carbon emissions produced) to meet the community’s water needs.
Read more about the new reclaimed water system here: http://uncnews.unc.edu/content/view/2525/107/
Note: Free parking for the event is available in the Dogwood Deck, located directly across Mason Farm Road from the Tomkins Operations Center. Please inform the parking attendant that you are attending the reclaimed water system event.
News Services contact: Susan Houston, (919) 962-8415, susan_houston@unc.edu