Reclaimed Water Holiday

The Town of Cary will shutdown all of its reclaimed water systems, with the exception of bulk service from the South Water Reclamation Facility, each year on the third Wednesday in February to perform maintenance to the system. Assuming no significant repair issues arise during the system inspection, the annual holiday will end 10 days later on the following Friday.

During the holiday, the Town will stop producing reclaimed water and shut off system valves, which will result in customers not being able to have access to reclaimed water. No new reclaimed water meters will be permitted by the Town during the holiday given that there will be no reclaimed water in the system with which to test new meters.

Officials with the NC Department of Environment and Natural Resources have been involved with planning for Cary’s annual reclaimed water holiday.

Details

In order to minimize the inconvenience to customers, the Town of Cary chose February for the annual holiday since it’s the time of year when the lowest amount of reclaimed water is used by customers due to the colder weather.

The holiday will allow the Town to regularly inspect, clean, and repair as necessary the many components of the reclaimed water system such as tanks, pumps, pipes, and valves.

The Town will notify reclaimed water customers in advance of the annual holiday via:

§ Direct mail

§ Email

§ Telephone

Customers will not be refunded a portion of the system’s regular charges because of the annual holiday since work is continuing on the system and costs are accruing even if reclaimed water isn’t flowing.

When the system is restarted at the conclusion of the holiday, some customers may notice a slight smell of chlorine the first time they use the water since crews will be increasing the amount of chlorine in the water initially to ensure that any undesired bacteria in the system are eliminated. The temporary condition should not impact customers’ normal use of their reclaimed water.

Background

In 1999, the Town of Cary became the first municipality in North Carolina to offer reclaimed water.

The Town of Cary’s reclaimed water system has four primary components: a bulk station at the North Water Reclamation Facility; a piped system that parallels the Town’s potable water system and serves customers within a few miles of the North Water Reclamation Facility; a piped system that parallels the Town’s potable water system and serves customers within a few miles of the South Water Reclamation Facility; and a bulk station at the South Water Reclamation Facility.

In total and as of January 23, 2008, the Town of Cary’s reclaimed water system had a total of 589 reclaimed water customers tied to the piped reclaimed water systems: 529 of which are residential and rest of which are commercial, industrial, and multi-family customers.

Under permits from the State of North Carolina, the Town of Cary may produce up to 5.14 million gallons a day of reclaimed water in its piped systems and 600,000 gallons a day from its bulk systems.

Contact

For more information, call (919) 469-4090.