Hillsborough battles back: Water service nears restoration after unprecedented flooding

The town of Hillsborough provided an update Friday afternoon on efforts to restore water and sewer services.

Flash flooding from Tropical Depression Chantal sent raw sewage into the Eno River earlier this week, prompting a boil water advisory. The town lifted the advisory on Wednesday, but people in the town are still urged to conserve water.

The town’s plan is to have its wastewater treatment plant fully back online by Monday.

“Our water plant is not online right now, but we are on the verge of getting it back online,” said Hillsborough Utilities Director Marie Strandwitz on Friday afternoon. “We had flooding of our finished water storage tank, which is an in-ground storage tank [that is] partially buried and we have vents on the side of it.

“So, the Eno River came up and got into those vents and we visibly saw contamination of river water into our finished drinking water.”

Strandwitz said it prompted the town to issue a boil water notice.

“Typically, we would only issue an advisory, but since we visibly observed that flooding, we went straight to a notice even before we took a bacteria test,” Strandwitz said on Friday. “But I can say right now that we have gotten the tanks cleared out and sanitized, refilled and we are actually waiting on our final bacteria testing right now.”

Town Manager Eric Peterson said Hillsborough had 10.5 inches of rain. He called it an unprecedented situation.

“It exceeded anything we’ve seen before,” Peterson said.

Strandwitz said the town can put its wastewater treatment plant back online once it doesn’t have bacteria.

 “Testing of water samples found no bacteria in the system. However, customers are urged to continue to conserve water to maintain water supply in the system because the Water Treatment Plant is offline,” read a Wednesday statement posted on the town’s website.  

On Friday afternoon, town leaders provided an update on the flooding at Hillsborough’s wastewater treatment plant. According to the town, the flooding has resulted in 75% of the town’s raw sewage spilling into the Eno River since Monday.

By 11 a.m. Monday, the town of Hillsborough began buying water from the city of Durham.

“I would like to give a huge thank you to the city of Durham because they are supplying the town with our water right now through our distribution system,” Strandwitz said.

Hillsborough leaders also said they lost about one-third of the Public Works equipment in the storm.

Eno River State Park remains closed due to high water, according to ncparks.gov. Earlier this week, around 80 people living near the Eno River had to be rescued from floodwaters by boat.

The town of Hillsborough also has the loss of roughly $7 million in federal grants for critical water and sewer projects.

The planned projects included relocating a pump away from the Eno River and building a water boost station to allow the town to receive water in emergencies.

On Friday, Mayor Mark Bell discussed the impact of losing the the Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities [BRIC] grants.

“This is exactly the type of scenario BRIC grants were able to fund,” Bells said.

Bell said the town must relocate the current location of the pump.

The need for upgrades to the water and sewer system is something top of mind for Hillsborough’s residents.

“They have had problems before with exposure to flooding,” said Lee Gordon, who has lived in Hillsborough for 60 years. “I understand there was a FEMA grant they were supposed to receive, but that was canceled, so they’re back to square one.”

City of Mebane resumes water treatment

The town of Hillsborough is not the only North Carolina municipality dealing with flooding issues at its wastewater treatment plant.

The city of Mebane on Thursday announced it has resumed limited water treatment at its water treatment plant, but that the facility is still days away from being fully operational after it was damaged by flooding from Tropical Depression Chantal.

The city said residents will notice a “discoloration in their water.” However, the city said the water remains safe to use under the city’s Stage 5 mandatory restrictions.

The city has restrictions in place to limit water usage.

Flooding damage to Orange County to cost millions

We’re beginning to get a clearer picture of how much the
damage from this week’s flooding will cost.

Orange County Emergency Services Director Kirby Saunders told WRAL News the
damage to public infrastructure will likely cost at least $10 million to
repair. Damage to 63 residential structures is estimated to be in excess of $6 million. Saunders said the estimates are preliminary.

Orange County leaders will meet with partners in state and local
government next week to figure out how they are going to pay for these repairs.