Where does our water come from?

OWASA's raw water comes from two sources: the Cane Creek Reservoir, a 3 billion gallon lake located 11 miles west of Carrboro off of Route 54 and University lake, a 450 million gallon lake located off of Jones Ferry Road just outside of Carrboro. A 200 million gallon quarry reservoir west of Carrboro is available as a backup water source. Both the Cane Creek and University Lake watershed are located primarily in Orange County and have a combined area of approximately 64 square miles.

Streamflows to our community’s reservoirs

Our reservoirs receive water from both rainfall/stormwater and streamflows resulting from groundwater and springs. Under normal, non-drought conditions, various streams in the watersheds carry several million gallons of water per day to our lakes. OWASA therefore monitors rain and streamflow data in evaluating and projecting water supply conditions.

Real-time and historic streamflow data for Cane Creek just upstream of the Cane Creek Reservoir and for Morgan Creek upstream of University Lake can be viewed at the following U.S. Geological Survey links:

Cane Creek: http://waterdata.usgs.gov/nwis/uv/?&site_no=02096846

Morgan Creek near University Lake : http://waterdata.usgs.gov/nwis/uv/?&site_no=02097464

Data are presented in cubic feet per second (cfs), with 1 cfs equal to 0.65 million gallons per day (mgd). These gauging stations represent about 20 to 25 percent of the total drainage area to their respective reservoirs; so, in order to estimate the total inflow to the Cane Creek Reservoir or University Lake, simply multiply the flows at each gauging station by a factor of 4 or 5.