Frequently Asked Questions

The Jordan Lake Water Supply Program will provide growing communities of the City of Durham and the Western Intake Partners with a reliable source of clean drinking water. The City of Durham will lead the effort to construct the facilities and components. The main components that will be constructed as part of the Jordan Lake Water Supply Program includes:

• A Water Intake Structure to withdraw raw water from the western side of Jordan Lake. An underground pipeline will connect the Water Intake Structure to a new Pump Station, off North Pea Ridge Road, which will pump the raw water to the new Durham Water Treatment Plant.
• A Raw Water Transmission pipeline from the new Pump Station to the Durham Water Treatment Plant.
• A Water Treatment Plant will be located adjacent to the current South Durham Water Reclamation Facility on Farrington Road. The raw water from Jordan Lake will be treated here to meet drinking water purification standards. After going through the purification process at the new Durham Water Treatment Plant, the treated water will be distributed to customers through Finished Water Transmission pipelines.

Jordan Lake is a manmade reservoir that was originally conceived by the Army Corps of Engineers as a flood control project following devastating floods in the 1940s. Construction occurred between 1973 and 1983, as the Army Corps of Engineers dammed Haw River and New Hope Creek to create what we now know as Jordan Lake.

Planners identified that Jordan Lake could also serve as a future water supply source for the growing Triangle region. Currently, the Town of Cary and the Town of Apex have a shared water intake on Jordan Lake. This shared water intake has supplied water from Jordan Lake to the residents of northeast Chatham County for years.

In 1989, Orange Water and Sewer Authority (OWASA) purchased a property near Jordan Lake with the intention of building a new water supply facility on this site at some point in the future to meet the increased drinking water demands of the Triangle region.

Who can withdraw water and how much water they can withdraw from Jordan Lake is controlled by North Carolina’s Environmental Management Commission (opens in a new tab).

The Environmental Management Commission controls which utilities receive water supply allocations from Jordan Lake (meaning they can withdraw raw water to treat and use for drinking water) based on each utility’s forecasted future water needs. Each of the members of the Western Intake Partnership have received individual water supply allocations from the Environmental Management Commission for Jordan Lake. By using a regional management approach, the Western Intake Partners will work together to provide reliable, high quality drinking water to the Triangle region for generations to come in a manner that will be more sustainable and environmentally friendly than if each Partner individually managed drinking water needs for just their service area.

To learn more about this regional approach to meeting the future drinking water needs of the Triangle region, click on the Jordan Lake Water Supply Program link at the bottom of this web page.

The vision for the Jordan Lake Water Supply Program was established before Jordan Lake was even developed. Jordan Lake is a vital regional water resource that was developed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to serve a variety of purposes, including supplying water for surrounding communities, mitigating flooding risks, providing habitats for fish and wildlife, and creating new recreational opportunities for communities in the Triangle region.

In 1989, Orange Water and Sewer Authority (OWASA) purchased a property near Jordan Lake for the purposes of installing a water intake and water treatment facility to treat and process the raw water withdrawals from Jordan Lake.

Shortly after the property was purchased, a study investigated possible sites for a new water intake on the western side of Jordan Lake and evaluated the feasibility of a raw water intake facility on the western side of Jordan Lake.

In 2014, the WIP partners completed a feasibility study to evaluate the technical and financial feasibility of a regional approach to access their Jordan Lake water supply allocations. Concrete actions to implement this Jordan Lake Water Supply Program began in 2018, with a memorandum of understanding between Chatham County, Durham, OWASA and Pittsboro. The agreement envisioned the facilities would be constructed by Durham, with capacity cost shares for the other partners.

In 2026, OWASA gave approval to the City of Durham to purchase this property to construct the Raw Water Pump Station at this location. An interlocal agreement being finalized in 2026 affirms the framework for the intake and raw water facilities to be constructed for the mutual benefit of Durham, TriRiver Water and OWASA. Other Jordan Lake allocation holders may also acquire allocations in the facilities in the future.

Once the Jordan Lake Water Supply Program is implemented, the facilities will be able to provide up to:

• Initially, approximately 20 million gallons of drinking water per day to community members within the City of Durham (City) service areas as the City needs additional water supply sooner than the other Partners (TriRiver Water and OWASA).
• As a result, the Partners agreed that the City would construct and operate the intake and raw water facilities, transmission pipelines, and the water treatment plant.
• We are also planning for the future – each of the facilities are being designed and built so that the facilities can be easily expanded in the future if needed. In the future, the lake intake and raw water facilities can be expanded to access Partners’ Jordan Lake water supply allocations, and the Durham Water Treatment Plant could be expanded to be able to process and treat up to 40 million gallons of water per day.

The water supply was anticipated in the design of the reservoir and the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality, Division of Water Resources (opens in a new tab)’ water supply allocation process for Jordan Lake. The Western Intake Partnership aims to withdraw, transport, and treat water from Jordan Lake and deliver high quality drinking water to customers. The water withdrawn for the Partners’ use will be treated and returned to the Cape Fear River basin after use.

Quality and sustainability are core values that define our work as the Western Intake Partnership. We are committed to being a good steward of the environment and of our communities. The program is being delivered in accordance with the Partners’ goal to be certified through the Envision Sustainable Infrastructure Framework (opens in a new tab).

The Western Intake Partners performed an environmental review to identify and assess any potential environmental impacts of the Program. In compliance with both the National Environmental Policy Act (opens in a new tab) (NEPA) and North Carolina’s State Environmental Policy Act (opens in a new tab) (SEPA), findings from the review were documented in an Environmental Assessment which was submitted for regulatory approval as part of the Program's application to U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and state approvals of the Program and 401/404 permitting.

The Jordan Lake Water Supply Program involves constructing a new Water Treatment Plant that will treat raw water withdrawn from Jordan Lake. This new Water Treatment Plant will treat and process raw water and test the treated water to ensure it meets all required drinking water quality standards, before the treated water is discharged from the plant and transported through the new Finished Water Transmission Pipeline to customers’ homes. The new Finished Water Transmission Pipeline that will be constructed as a part of the Jordan Lake Water Supply Program will also meet federal, state, and local requirements to ensure water quality and safety.

The City of Durham is committed to ensure that they are providing customers with the highest quality drinking water and are committed to staying up to date about compounds of emerging concern, such as per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) and 1,4-dioxane and the best treatment methods for removing these compounds.

Regulatory standards for these compounds were finalized in 2024 and updated in 2025 and 2026. These compounds are occasionally detected in Jordan Lake at extremely low concentrations in the parts per trillion (ppt) – one part per trillion is equivalent to one grain of sugar in an Olympic-sized swimming pool. The Jordan Lake Water Supply Program is planning to incorporate advanced treatment technologies to its facilities to ensure that these compounds of emerging concern are being removed from all treated water that we will be providing to our customers.

The Western Intake Partners collaborated on an Interlocal Agreement for the raw water intake and pump station that defines how the Partners will use allocated capacity at these facilities in the future. While the financing of individual Partners' participation in the various components of the Jordan Lake Water Supply Program may vary, the financing of project costs would typically be through utility reserves, bonds, commercial debt, or a combination of these funding sources. Bonds or debt would be repaid from utility rates and fee revenues in the normal manner of utility enterprise funds. Property taxes would not be used to fund this Program.

The City of Durham is to provide funding to plan, construct, and operate the new facilities and components of the Jordan Lake Water Supply Program, that include the Raw Water Intake Structure, Pump Station, Water Treatment Plant, and the Raw Water and Finished Water Transmission Pipelines. Initially these facilities will serve Durham customers. In the future, expansions to the Raw Water Pump Station may be constructed by the Western Intake Partners to convey raw water to other water treatment plants.

There is no formal link between Western Intake Partnership's Jordan Lake Water Supply Program and Jordan Lake One Water Coalition (opens in a new tab) (JLOW). Since the beginning, the Western Intake Partners have been active participants in the regional collaboration efforts, which has included state, local government, non-governmental organizations, agriculture, and development stakeholders that the Jordan Lake One Water Coalition has facilitated. The Jordan Lake One Water Coalition seeks to produce integrated watershed management recommendations for Jordan Lake, which would be implemented within the state's regulatory framework and directly by stakeholders.

Planning for wastewater service for residents in eastern Chatham County is outside the of the project objectives of the Western Intake Partner’s Jordan Lake Water Supply Program. No wastewater service is being planned in conjunction with the Western Intake Partner’s Jordan Lake Water Supply Program. TriRiver Water is not a wastewater service provider in eastern Chatham County. Towns and developers there are responsible for installing operating wastewater treatment facilities and/or septic field systems for residents.

When Jordan Lake was designed and constructed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, it was designed for the lake to hold approximately 45,800 acre-feet of water with lake levels being at an elevation of between 202 ft – 216 ft above mean sea level. At the State of North Carolina's request, this storage was designed to reliably supply 100 million gallons of water per day to support the Triangle region's communities. The conservation pool includes both water supply and low-flow augmentation.

As part of the state's evaluation process (opens in a new tab) for Jordan Lake water supply allocations (opens in a new tab) to the Western Intake Partners and others that occurred in 2015 and 2016, the State of North Carolina developed a computer model for the Cape Fear River and Neuse River basins to analyze the impacts of the proposed water supply allocations from Jordan Lake. In the Round 4 Jordan Lake Water Supply Allocation Recommendations Report (opens in a new tab), the North Carolina Environmental Management Commission concluded fully that allocating the Jordan Lake water supply storage pool would not significantly affect water levels in the lake or downstream in the Cape Fear River. Specifically, lake levels in the most significant periods of drought may be 1-2 ft lower in a future year when water withdrawals reach the full allocated amounts.

The Triangle region experiences occasional periods of drought and heavy rainfall. The most recent droughts of record occurred in 2001-02 and 2007-08. Lake levels will continue to vary in the future as they do today. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers manages Jordan Lake to minimize the impact of these variations, and utilities have water shortage response plans to conserve water during periods of drought. The state's 2016 Cape Fear River Surface Water Supply Evaluation (opens in a new tab) acknowledges these natural variations will continue to occur, but it concludes that even with increased use of Jordan Lake water supply, the lake's storage is resilient enough to meet its water supply demands while also serving its recreational and habitat purposes, even if more extreme drought conditions were to occur.

The Program’s preliminary engineering reports established the proposed intake elevation located at the deepest part of the lake. The report also took drought conditions and water quality into consideration in determining the depth.

The State of North Carolina controls and monitors water supply allocations from Jordan Lake. North Carolina General Statute 143-354(a)(11) authorizes the State's Environmental Management Commission to allocate Jordan Lake water supply storage (opens in a new tab) to local governments based on need and the commitment to pay a share of associated capital, interest, administrative and operating costs, in proportion to their water supply storage allocations.

The most recent round of Jordan Lake water supply allocations (Round 4 (opens in a new tab)) was completed in 2017. At the conclusion Round 4, the State's Environmental Management Commission had allocated more than 91 percent of Jordan Lake’s available water supply storage pool with only 9 percent of the water supply storage still available that could be allocated in the future.

Each of the Western Intake Partners has their own defined water service areas and wastewater service areas. The idea of making water service available to residents near the future Durham Water Treatment Plant or along/near the future Finished Water Transmission Pipeline are not being investigated by the City of Durham but may be revisited at a future date.

Currently, the TriRiver Water service area does not include the Jordan Lake Water Supply Program’s water supply facilities, and TriRiver Water does not plan to extend its water service to include the areas surrounding the treatment plant, or along the transmission pipeline route. Residents within these service areas who are currently on well connections for their water needs, may reach out to TriRiver Water for information.

The Jordan Lake Water Supply Program will include two primary Design-Build construction contracts to perform the following projects:

• Intake and Raw Water Facilities and the Raw and Finished Water Transmission Pipelines
• Durham Water Treatment Plant

The City of Durham is responsible for contracting, planning, designing, constructing, and operating the new facilities through these projects.

At this preliminary stage of project planning and design, it is estimated that construction for the two construction component projects will take about 4 to 5 years to complete. The exact timing of when each construction component project will start has not yet been determined, but it is common practice that the start and end of construction work for each construction component project will be staggered. This means that while each construction component project is expected to be completed within 3-4 years, the total duration of construction to complete the entire Jordan Lake Water Supply Program is expected to be a little longer.

The construction of the long pipelines that will make up the Raw and Finished Water Transmission Pipeline will occur in short durations at various locations and will not require ongoing active construction work along the entire 16-mile pipeline route for the entire duration of the scheduled construction period for that construction project component.

The Western Intake Partnership facilities, which include the Intake and Raw Water Facilities and the Raw and Finished Water Transmission Pipeline, will be operated by the City of Durham on behalf of the Western Intake Partners. The entities that make up that Western Intake Partnership – the City of Durham, OWASA and TriRiver Water – are all non-profit municipal utilities or utility authorities.

Two Progressive Design-Build (PDB) Contractors were selected for the following project components that encompass the Jordan Lake Water Supply Program, they are:

• CDM Smith: Durham Water Treatment Plant
• Garney-Hazen: Intake and Raw Water Facilities and Water Transmission Pipelines. Hazen & Sawyer will provide design services for the Water Transmission Pipelines

The Cary/Apex Intake is in operation and provides water to the Cary/Apex Water Treatment Facility treatment and distribution. The planned Western Intake Partnership intake is different from the Cary/Apex Intake; the Cary/Apex Intake is submerged, with a pump station located near the eastern shoreline of Jordan Lake. The WIP Intake will convey water via a deep tunnel to a raw water pump station on its property on North Pea Ridge Road. The WIP intake and raw water facilities are expected to create less environmental impacts and will be less complicated to operate.

The Vista Point boat launch, campground, and beach site is expected to be temporarily closed for 2-3 years during construction of the Raw Water Intake, when the facility’s boat ramp will be used to access the in-lake construction work.

Once in-lake construction is completed, the Vista Point unit of the Jordan Lake State Recreation Area will reopen to visitors. It will not be used to support operation of the WIP facilities.

The City of Durham, NC State Parks, NC Wildlife Resources Commission (NCWRC), and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) have worked together collaboratively over the past five years to develop mutually-agreeable measures to compensate these agencies for the use of Vista Point and Jordan Lake during construction. These measures include repairs to areas of the park used by the construction company, financial compensation and improvements to the restroom facility and campgrounds, and financial support for increased use of other NC State Parks and NCWRC facilities on Jordan Lake during the time Vista Point is closed. The Contractors are also expected to restore the boat ramp to original conditions post construction.

The Durham Water Treatment Plant will be located at 6903 Farrington Road, a site already owned by the City of Durham and adjacent to the South Durham Water Reclamation Facility.

The Water Treatment Plant would initially provide up to approximately 20 million gallons per day (MGD) of drinking water to community members within the City of Durham (City) service areas, with a potential to expand to 30 MGD, and an ultimate build-out treatment goal of 40 MGD. The future expansions are expected to be within the parcel of the newly built Water Treatment Plant.

The original location proposed for the raw water intake, pump station, and Regional Water Treatment Facilities was off Seaforth Road and North Pea Ridge Roads near Jordan Lake. Finished water would have been sent directly to each Western Intake Partnership (WIP) Partner’s service area from the previously proposed Regional Water Treatment Facilities. Six other sites in Chatham County, each close to Jordan Lake and ranging from 75-150 acres, were evaluated during the Program’s preliminary phase in 2021-2024.

The City of Durham requires an additional water supply sooner than the other Partners (TriRiver Water and OWASA), and will construct and operate the intake, raw water facilities, and transmission pipelines, as well as a new Water Treatment Plant. The WIP facility elements are being designed for future expansion to accommodate WIP Partners’ long-term water supply needs.

At the end of 2025, Durham identified an opportunity to keep the intake and raw water facilities at the originally-proposed locations but shift the water treatment plant closer to the City’s other utility facilities and customers, reducing the construction and operation costs. The portion of the Seaforth Road property not used for the raw water pump station would be available for another WIP Partner to construct its own water treatment facility in the future.

The Jordan Lake Water Supply Program will directly support and help fulfill Plan Chatham (opens in a new tab) (Chatham County’s Comprehensive Plan that was developed in 2017) vision for utilities and public services, which is described in Chapter 4 of the Plan Chatham Comprehensive Plan.

On page 139 of the Plan Chatham Comprehensive Plan, there is a map (Figure 29) depicts this future Regional Water Treatment Facility. This Program will specifically achieve Utilities & Public Services Action Item 2: "expand public services" and Action Item 5: "partner with municipalities to provide water and wastewater service to economic development priorities,” which are both included as recommendations in the Plan Chatham Comprehensive Plan.

Planning for the Jordan Lake Water Supply Program began more than 35 years ago in 1989, when the Orange Water and Sewer Authority (OWASA) purchased the property of the now proposed Intake and Raw Water Facilities with the intent to construct a water supply/treatment facility on the property to access their state-issued water supply allocation from Jordan Lake. The City of Durham plans to acquire and use a portion of the property for the intake and raw water facilities. The portion of the Seaforth Road property not used for the raw water pump station would be available for another WIP Partner to construct its own water treatment facility in the future.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) owns the reservoir and lands immediately surrounding Jordan Lake. Portions of the lands around the lake are leased by USACE to the State of North Carolina to be managed by State agencies for recreation, forestry, and wildlife management. As with privately-held lands, a public infrastructure project must obtain an easement to locate water supply facilities and pipelines on land owned by USACE. Water supply was one of the original authorized purposes of the reservoir, and the Partners expect the easement request to be granted.

The design-build teams for the Jordan Lake Water Supply Program are coordinating closely with NCDOT on the placement of the transmission pipelines, as well as the Intake and Raw Water Facilities and Water Treatment Plant access driveways. The Intake and Raw Water Facilities main access driveway will be located on N Pea Ridge Rd more than a quarter mile from the Seaforth Rd/N Pea Ridge Rd intersection; the entrance to the Durham Water Treatment Plant will be located at Farrington Road. The access driveways will be used a few dozen times per day when the new facilities are in operation, for employees, visitors, and deliveries.

Engineering studies and detailed designs by both design-build teams began this spring and will continue through 2027. Our Program Team has not yet reached the stage of design where we have a detailed understanding of the noise, lighting, and vibrational impacts that may be associated with the operation of the Durham Water Treatment Plant, or Intake and Raw Water Facilities, but we can share that the City of Durham is deeply committed to being a good neighbor to the surrounding communities to WIP facilities, and plans to incorporate design features to limit and mitigate offsite noise and lighting impacts that could be caused by the Durham Water Treatment Plant.

Conceptually, our intent is to 1). limit the number of light fixtures, 2). use fixture designs that limit up-lighting into the sky, 3). use energy-efficient, warm-color LED and sodium light fixtures, and 4). use motion sensors and timers to limit unnecessary lighting. Interior lights would be turned off when not needed or shielded from outside view.

This has been an important factor as the Western Intake Partners proactively work to be a good neighbor. We are planning a vegetated buffer of generally 100 feet wide around the Water Plant property to screen the facility from view. We won't rely on just existing vegetation. In fact, our proposal includes augmenting the current pine-dominant vegetation with additional plantings to enhance screening nearer the ground beneath the tree canopy.

To protect public health and safety, the Durham Water Treatment Plant will have a metal fence around the developed portions of the facility. The fence has not yet been designed, but our intent is that the fencing complements the desired screening effect. The fence will be located inside a 100-ft vegetated buffer, so that from the road, a passerby or resident would see the trees (the vegetated buffer) but not the fence, except at the entrance gates, which will also be located 100-ft inside the vegetated buffer.

The Western Intake Partners are deeply committed to being a good neighbor to the surrounding community. Our Design-Build Project Team will coordinate closely with North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT) regarding traffic expected during the construction and operation of the Durham Water Treatment Plant. The Plant will not experience frequent deliveries of chemicals or supplies or the pick-up/ removal of residuals – less than ten times per month on average. These delivery/pick-up trips may be by larger tractor-trailers, tanker trucks, or smaller trucks. These deliveries/pick-ups would be expected to use the Farrington Road main access driveway.

Preliminary Engineering Report (PER) originally conducted in 2024 demonstrated. Granular Activated Carbon (GAC) to be useful for treating seasonal increases in algal compounds, as well as contaminants of emerging concern like per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). The Durham Water Treatment Plant is expected to include the ability to incorporate Granular Activated Carbon (GAC) into the treatment process, possibly in combination with other technologies to consistently deliver high quality water to our customers. Powdered Activated Carbon (PAC) is also expected to be incorporated into the treatment process.

To learn more about PFAS, we encourage you to visit the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s PFAS Explained (opens in a new tab) webpage. To learn more about the Granular Activated Carbon (GAC) Treatment process, we encourage you to visit this webpage about water treatment technologies (opens in a new tab) created by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

The Western Intake Partners understand the significant potential health impacts that may result from exposure to PFAS and other emerging contaminants through drinking water, and we are deeply committed to doing everything we can to protect the community members that we serve. That’s why our Program Team has been focused on determining the best water treatment process to utilize at our new Durham Water Treatment Plant, including the most effective techniques for PFAS and emerging contaminant removal.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency issued regulatory limits that establish performance requirements for the associated water treatment process; updates have recently been proposed. To learn about the latest developments in this topic, we encourage you to visit www.epa.gov/pfas (opens in a new tab).

The Western Intake Partnership partnered with the Town of Cary to conduct a Pilot Study in 2023-2024 to better understand the effectiveness of a range of treatment technologies for PFAS and other emerging contaminants, specifically for water from Jordan Lake. The Pilot Study Report supported the Partners’ decisions regarding the best treatment approach to utilize in the Durham Water Treatment Plant.

The Jordan Lake Water Supply Program are deeply committed to public safety in the design, construction and operation of these facilities. In general, water treatment plants are highly regulated locations in the interest of protecting public safety. Designs of water treatment plants are subjected to detailed reviews by state and local fire marshals and the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality prior to construction, and these facilities are regularly inspected by state and local agencies.

The chemicals that we will use for our water treatment processes will be selected very carefully and will be managed on-site to minimize any potential for chemical spills or fire – both of which will be highly unlikely given the detailed safety protocols that will be put in place. Water treatment plants are required to incorporate design features with multiple safety factors to minimize health risks, environmental risks, and safety risks to both employees and the public. Chemicals will be stored as required by both county and state building codes, which means inside secured buildings with fire-suppression sprinkler systems, automated monitoring, and alarms to alert staff to issues before unsafe situations can occur.

Chemicals used for water treatment processes (including settling solids, removing impurities, improving taste and odor, and disinfection) are not volatile and will be stored and managed so that the risk of fire, explosion, or leaving the site through air emissions is extremely low. Facility operators, who will work around these stored chemicals, will be required to wear protective clothes, protective boots, safety glasses, and gloves. Storage facilities will be ventilated and masks/respirators are not typically needed or required when working around these specific chemicals. There will be containment areas onsite to prevent any chemicals from impacting the public, in the rare chance that some volume of chemical were to be spilled during delivery or if a leak developed in a storage tank.

The Water Treatment Plant site is approximately 45 acres. The City of Durham will be working with the City and County of Durham Planning & Development Department to zone the site for its proposed use as a water treatment plant.

The City of Durham began work in May 2026 to update its Water Treatment Plant preliminary engineering report to reflect the new site, including a new site plan. This is expected to be completed in September 2026. A new site plan will be available when these reports are completed.

The Jordan Lake Water Supply Program is committed to incorporate safe ingress/egress to the site during and after construction keeping impacts to the neighborhood in mind.

Preliminary planning is underway for the Water Treatment Plan at the Farrington Road location; more information will be available on specific features and the nature of impacts to neighbors in fall 2026. The City plans additional public outreach as the project becomes better defined.

Preliminarily, the City anticipates the sidewalk along Farrington Road would be continued along the site’s frontage as part of the WTP construction. We anticipate additional construction traffic near the WTP site along Farrington Road, as the facility takes shape.

At this early stage of design, access points into the WTP site are expected to be located on Farrington Road. Specific locations are being coordinated with NCDOT and the City of Durham. These entry areas would be depicted as part of the site plan to be completed in fall 2026. Final design drawings will provide additional information about the exact locations of access points and sidewalks in early 2028.

Construction is anticipated to occur between 7:00 am and 5:00 pm, Monday through Friday, based on the season. There may be occasional weekend work necessary with similar work hours. The impacted neighborhoods will be notified prior to starting construction. This website will be updated as the projects head into construction under the Stay Updated tab (opens in a new tab) or the Jordan Lake Water Supply Program can be reached via the Contact Us page (opens in a new tab) for additional questions.

The sounds levels during construction will be evaluated during design, including a formal noise study. All activities that cause loud noise, during construction and Water Treatment Plant operations, will adhere to noise standards set by the Durham Code of Ordinances.

Per the Code of Ordinances, during the daytime or evening (8:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m.) sound levels shall not exceed 60 decibels (dB) and nighttime (11:00 p.m. to 8:00 a.m.) levels shall not exceed 50 dB at the property line. Unless issued under a permit or to conduct emergency operations, work hours will be between 7:00 a.m. and 8:00 p.m. on weekdays (Monday – Saturday). The contractor may apply for noise-related permits during some parts of construction when specific conditions are expected to temporarily exceed 60 dB.

A noise study is expected to be conducted for the site to understand if noise stays within acceptable levels to meet the City and County of Durham Code of Ordinances noise standards at the property line.

The study will measure existing sound levels in the neighborhood to understand current conditions and identify equipment at the new plant that could generate noise – like pumps, blowers, and generators. They will then use this to model how sound will travel from the site to the property line. This will allow the design team to find ways to reduce noise, such as enclosing equipment or adding sound barriers.

The modeling will look at how factors like clearing trees can increase noise levels from vehicular travel from Interstate 40, which is near the site.

As design gets underway information about expected noise from the plant will become clear.

In its Round 4 Jordan Lake Water Supply Allocation Recommendations Report (opens in a new tab), the North Carolina Environmental Management Commission concluded that one additional raw water intake will be required to make optimal use of Lake Jordan’s water supply storage. Currently, the Cary-Apex water supply intake is the only one on Jordan Lake. That current raw water intake structure and its associated pumping station do not have the capacity to withdraw all the water associated with Jordan Lake water supply allocations, which could eventually reach an average annual withdrawal of 100 million gallons per day.

The resiliency of Jordan Lake’s water supply is another factor favoring the construction of a second water intake. It is a best practice to have redundancies in major infrastructure elements like a water intake structure; in the very unlikely situation that the Cary-Apex water intake needs to be taken out of service, a back-up water intake structure can help to support the intake needs to meet Cary-Apex service area’s drinking water needs.

More than 30 years ago in 1991, Orange Water and Sewer Authority completed a Water Intake Site Investigation Study to determine the best location for an additional water supply intake on Jordan Lake. This Study found that the best location was on the western side of Jordan Lake near Vista Point, south of U.S. Highway 64 and north of the "Narrows." Factors favoring this location included: water supply availability, a short distance from the deepest part of the lake to shore, and available options to minimize environmental, economic, and recreational impacts.

In 2022 as part of an updated Study for the Western Intake Partners, the Hazen and Sawyer consulting team evaluated alternative intake site options and how each alternative intake site option would impact the public, both on the lake and within the Vista Point State Recreation Area. This recent Study had access to additional information that was not part of the original 1991 Water Intake Site Investigation Study, including lake modeling and long-term water quality trends in this part of Jordan Lake, including for PFAS, 1,4-dioxane and other emerging contaminants. The 2022 Updated Study confirmed the recommendation made by the original Water Intake Site Investigation Study in 1991.

No other alternative intake site option would provide the combination of benefits as the intake site selected for the new Water Intake Structure. The Western Intake Partnership will continue coordinating with the appropriate North Carolina and Federal agencies about the site location for the proposed Water Intake Structure and any potential impacts.

Yes, blasting is anticipated in some parts of the Raw Water Pump Station location when it is not possible to effectively excavate bedrock. In the event blasting is necessary, a plan will be developed and approved by local authorities to address to safely conduct these activities.

The Pump Station requirements are currently being evaluated, and a site plan is under development. The Pump Station will include large pumps and may be similar in height to a two-story building. It is anticipated that future public meetings will be held to provide information about project progress. The next meeting is planned for fall 2026. To receive future information, join the mailing list by signing up through the Get Involved page (opens in a new tab).

The Raw Water Transmission Pipeline will be located between the Raw Water Pump Station, at the Seaforth property off N Pea Ridge Road, and the Water Treatment Plant off Farrington Road. Detailed design of the Raw Water Transmission Pipeline route is currently underway.

The Raw Water Pump Station, which will help transport the raw (untreated) water withdrawn from Jordan Lake to the proposed Durham Water Treatment Plant, will be located on the Seaforth property, off N Pea Ridge Rd near the Vista Point unit of the Jordan Lake State Recreation Area. The Seaforth property has been owned by the Orange Water and Sewer Authority (OWASA) but is in the process of being acquired by the City of Durham to construct these facilities.

The Finished Water Transmission Pipeline will be located between the Durham Water Treatment Plant and a connection point at NC Highway 751 near the western entrance to Southpoint Mall. A Preliminary Engineering Study evaluated several alternative Finished Water Pipeline route while considering hydraulic modeling, subsurface geotechnical investigations, cost assessments, and environmental, cultural, historic resource assessments. Based on this extensive evaluation, a final route was identified for the Finished Water Transmission Pipeline. The preferred route for the Finished Water Transmission Pipeline generally follows the Enbridge gas pipeline crossing through the property and will interconnect with City of Durham's water distribution system at NC Highway 751 by Wayfield Drive.

A separate City project (South Durham Water Transmission Improvements) will continue the water transmission pipeline into the City’s water distribution system, nearly 6 miles from NC Highway 751 to Cornwallis Road. The transmission pipeline constructed in this project will have multiple connections to the City’s distribution system. This project began design in June 2026, and is expected to be constructed and in service by 2031.

Detailed design of the transmission pipeline infrastructure is underway, including construction techniques and materials that will be utilized for the Raw Water and Finished Water Transmission pipelines. Factors that influence that pipe size include flow requirements, flow pressure, and capacity. Preliminarily, we expect the initial pipeline to have a diameter between 36 in & 42 inches. Additionally, we plan to incorporate the ability to construct a second parallel pipeline in the future.

Several technical approaches are available to construct pipeline stream crossings, including horizontal directional drilling, tunneling, and open-cut construction. Recommendations for each crossing will be based on cost and non-cost technical factors, as well as the Partners' goal to avoid and minimize permanent wetland impacts when feasible. Detailed design of the transmission pipeline project elements is currently underway to finalize which methods to use during design and construction.

The proposed transmission pipeline has been routed to generally follow existing utility corridors and transportation rights-of-way where feasible, to minimize impacts to undeveloped areas and reduce conflicts with existing infrastructure. As part of the design process, a comprehensive subsurface utility engineering (SUE) investigation and review of available utility records have been conducted to identify existing underground utilities along the corridor. If conflicts with existing utilities are identified, the transmission main alignment can be shifted, and where conflicts cannot be avoided, the project team will coordinate directly with utility owners to evaluate and implement appropriate relocation strategies.

Traffic impacts will occur intermittently during construction as the pipeline is installed. Road closures are not anticipated in most areas or may be required in limited locations where work areas are constrained or occur too close to the road. Construction will typically be performed using lane closures with appropriate signage, flagging operations, and detours as needed to maintain access. The design team will work with NCDOT to establish the locations where closures are required and will limit disturbance as much as possible.

Access within neighborhoods will be maintained at all times for residents, emergency services, and deliveries. Residential and business driveways will remain accessible to the greatest extent practicable. When temporary interruptions are unavoidable (e.g., when the trench passes directly across a driveway), access will be restored as quickly as possible, often within the same day or by providing temporary access (such as steel plates). Property owners will receive advance notice of any temporary disruptions to allow for planning.

Easement needs will vary from property to property. The team began the design phase in 2025. Easement needs are expected to be clarified by late 2026. We began contacting property owners regarding the project, schedule and easements in Spring 2026.

It typically takes a contractor a few hours to cross a driveway. Driveway and access impacts are coordinated with the property owners in advance and kept to a minimum. Emergency access is maintained at all times.

We do not anticipate water service interruption as a part of this project. The new pipe will not be connected to the existing water mains, so construction will not affect existing water delivery. Wells will be identified during the survey process, and impacts to wells will be avoided as much as possible.

Disturbed areas will be restored to pre-existing conditions as much as possible. Right-of-way and easement surfaces will be regraded to pre-existing conditions and stabilized per the approved NC Department of Environmental Quality Erosion and Sediment Control Plan. Right-of-way surfaces will be restored to NC Department of Transportation standards (with grass seed and not sod). Mailboxes are restored the same day so as not to disrupt mail delivery. Driveways are also restored the same day, using temporary stone. Permanent restoration will occur after the section of pipe has been pressure tested. Property owners will not be expected to pay for reconstruction or restoration.

If an easement outside of NC Department of Transportation right-of-way is required, the land and improvements, including timber, are included in the property value that is offered to the property owner.

Generally, with some site-specific exceptions, replacement of specialty improvements such as lighting, stonework, and landscaping are included in the easement value given to the property owner. However, if the work within the easement removes these specialty items, they may not be replaced in situations where it would interfere with the City’s need for clear access to safely conduct future maintenance activities. Driveways are replaced by the project contractor at no cost to the homeowner.

In 2014, Chatham County, the City of Durham, Orange Water and Sewer Authority (OWASA), and the Town of Pittsboro began to explore ways to jointly meet the long-term water supply needs of the Triangle region. In 2018, the four water service providers signed an interlocal agreement to form the Western Intake Partnership (WIP). Jointly funded preliminary studies began in 2020. OWASA has supported the WIP since its inception and officially began funding a share in the Partnership studies in 2022. In 2024, the Town of Pittsboro, Chatham County, Siler City and Sanford merged their utilities to form the regional water/wastewater utility known as TriRiver Water. TriRiver Water continued to participate in WIP studies on behalf of Pittsboro and Chatham County.

The City of Durham is to construct the initial WIP water supply facilities through its Jordan Lake Water Supply Program. Other partners intend to acquire water supply in the future. To keep up-to-date on the status, we encourage you to visit the Western Intake Partnership page.