City of Durham, N.C., Improves Water Quality with 3-in-1 Pressure Monitoring, Sampling & Flushing

By Nathan Wiles

The City of Durham is commit­ted to providing safe drinking water to a service population of more than 289,000. The city’s Depart­ment of Water Management (DWM) ensures the delivery of water to ap­proximately 99,000 service connec­tions through 1,400 miles of water­mains. Lake Michie and Little River Reservoir are the two sources that deliver raw water to the city’s two treatment plants, using a combina­tion of gravity flow and electric and hydro-powered pumping systems. Together, these plants have the combined treatment capacity of 64 million gallons per day (MGD) with an average demand is 28 MGD.

The two facilities have onsite raw water reservoirs that store approxi­mately 135 million gallons and can sustain the city for two to three days. Like many municipalities Durham stores drinking water in covered tanks on the treatment plant sites, ready for distribution. Treated water is also stored in elevated and ground level water storage tanks located throughout Durham. Levels in the towers are monitored remotely and usually filled each evening using off-peak pumping strategies.