FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                                                                                              August 3, 2007

EXAMINATION OF ALL RECLAIMED CONNECTIONS REVEALS NO ADDITIONAL PROBLEMS IN CARY

Town Manager Bill Coleman to deliver a report on incident to Cary Council

CARY , NC – After testing meters and sampling the water at each of its 519 reclaimed water sites, the Town of Cary has found no additional locations where reclaimed water and potable drinking water services have been reversed.  With all tests complete, the Town is beginning the resumption of reclaimed water service to customers, a process that should be finished this evening.

“This is very good news for the Town and our customers who rely on us to provide them with the highest level of service,” said Town Manager Bill Coleman.  “While the event is over for our citizens, we will continue our work to ensure this never happens again.”

To this end, Coleman is preparing a comprehensive report on the incident detailing what happened, why it happened, what could and should have been done differently, and what will be done in the future to guarantee the situation does not occur again.  Coleman hopes to present the report to the Cary Town Council later this month.

The Town shut down its reclaimed water service on Wednesday to perform comprehensive testing after discovering a total of four homes where reclaimed water was connected to household plumbing.  Two of the four homes had been occupied for several months, while the owners of the third home had lived in the house for less than two weeks, and the fourth was still under construction.

Town officials have concluded that the problems occurred during construction of the new homes when someone switched the drinking water meter box lids with the reclaimed water meter box lids prior to the Town’s installation of the meters.  The lids, which are different colors, have until now been one of the primary method workers used to distinguish between the services when installing the meters.  With the lids switched, neither the Town nor the plumbers who were running the services into the homes knew the water services were reversed under the protocols that existed at the time.

To ensure this situation cannot occur again, the Town is conducting two water tests of the drinking water at each new home built within the reclaimed service area.  One test is being conducted prior to setting the drinking water meter in the meter box and the other test is being conducted prior to issuing a certificate of occupancy to make sure the water in the house is drinking water. 

In addition, Town Manager Bill Coleman has called for a comprehensive revision to the standard specifications used for reclaimed water services.  The changes, which will immediately go into effect upon adoption by the Cary Town Council, include but are not limited to:

• Changing the size, color, and material of reclaimed distribution pipe so that it clearly looks different from drinking water pipe and because of its different size cannot be physically connected to drinking water meters;

• Changing the shape of the meter boxes and lids used for reclaimed to round so that they are different from the rectangular drinking water meter boxes and lids;

• Painting the inside of the reclaimed meter box purple in addition to the current requirement for purple lids and purchasing meters with purple tops for the reclaimed meters; and,

• Locking the valve inside the box so reclaimed water will be off until the Town installs the meter.

While approaching but not meeting the regulatory requirements for potable uses, reclaimed water is highly treated wastewater intended for landscape irrigation, commercial cooling, and dust control but not for household uses such as cooking and drinking.  That said, it appears that families who did drink the water should not see any lasting effects based on a review of many of the elements in Cary’s reclaimed water by Wake County Community Health Medical Director Dr. David C. Damsker.

“I have not come across any data or other information thus far that would lead me to conclude that the families who consumed Town of Cary reclaimed water should have long-term health risks to worry about,” said Dr. Damsker.  “While nothing in medicine is 100% certain, if this had happened to my family, I would be feeling much better after reviewing the information out there thus far about the Town’s reclaimed water,” he added.

On the evening of July 23, 2007 , the Town’s Public Works and Utilities Department was called to a new residence on Rensford Place to determine why the home’s water had stopped working.  The investigation revealed that the homes two water systems—one potable and one reclaimed—had been switched and that reclaimed water had been serving the home since being occupied in March 2007.   A survey of other homes with reclaimed water service revealed that a second home—this one on Spencer Crest Court —also had switched service boxes, this one dating back to December 2006.  On August 1, the Town located two more homes, these on Kennicott Avenue in Weston Oaks with, the same problem.

In 2000, the Town of Cary became the first municipality in North Carolina to offer reclaimed water, a popular service that has received national attention for its environmental benefits.  This is the first time that Cary has had an issue with drinking water and reclaimed water services having been reversed.

 For more on the Town of Cary ’s reclaimed water program, visit www.townofcary.org.

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