What We Do
OWASA provides drinking water to customers in the Carrboro-Chapel Hill community. OWASA also collects, treats and recycles the community's wastewater.
Our raw water comes from the Cane Creek, University Lake and the Quarry Reservoirs. The raw water is pumped from the reservoirs to the Jones Ferry Road Water Treatment Plant in Carrboro, which has the capacity to treat 20 million gallons per day. The treated drinking water is pumped to storage tanks and then to customers through a network of about 400 miles of pipe.
We operate another system of pipes (about 325 miles) and pump stations (21) to collect the community's wastewater (domestic sewage) for treatment at the Mason Farm Wastewater Treatment Plant in Chapel Hill. The plant has the capacity to treat an average peak month flow of 14.5 million gallons per day. The highly treated wastewater is recycled to Morgan Creek, a tributary of Jordan Lake. A portion of the highly treated wastewater (called reclaimed water), is pumped to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where it is used instead of drinking water for certain non-drinking purposes in their central chiller plants and for irrigation.
A bird's-eye view of OWASA's overall system is provided in our Annual Review of Strategic Trends and Master Plan Issues.