OWASA Board of Directors discussed water crisis at Friday meeting

The OWASA Board of Directors discussed the water crisis at a special work session Friday night. Staff Writer Molly Horak live-tweeted the meeting. 

I'm sure my friday night tops everything: I'm here livetweeting at the OWASA Board of Directors meeting for dth!

— Molly Horak (@molly_horak) February 18, 2017

Jeff Danner opens meeting by stating that they hope to follow up and answer questions following the fluoride overfeed and water main break

— Molly Horak (@molly_horak) February 18, 2017

"If we had a contamination in the water system, how would we have responded?" OWASA board member David Moreau said in response to incident

— Molly Horak (@molly_horak) February 18, 2017

Both Carrboro and Chapel Hill fire departments told OWASA they were prepared in case of fire, OWASA board member Terri Buckner said

— Molly Horak (@molly_horak) February 18, 2017

"Fortunately we measure our fluoride, if something else had gotten in there we might not have seen it" Moreau said

— Molly Horak (@molly_horak) February 18, 2017

Risk assessment will be an important follow-up; questions rise from situation about additional capital investments

— Molly Horak (@molly_horak) February 18, 2017

Board moves to report on water main break

— Molly Horak (@molly_horak) February 18, 2017

damage to water pipe was done by differential settling, not by the load on top of it, Moreau said

— Molly Horak (@molly_horak) February 18, 2017

The type of break is not very common; no one in the room can remember a break similar to this occurring in Orange County

— Molly Horak (@molly_horak) February 18, 2017

Water main was 4.5 feet below the road. According to diagrams, the main was directly above secondary pipe that led to break.

— Molly Horak (@molly_horak) February 18, 2017

Pipe that broke was installed in 1972.

— Molly Horak (@molly_horak) February 18, 2017

OWASA board asks how the strength and conditions of the pipes can be known

— Molly Horak (@molly_horak) February 18, 2017

In the 15 minutes between the pipe breaking and when the water was shut off, 1.2 million gallons of water were lost

— Molly Horak (@molly_horak) February 18, 2017

Board questions how this loss might have been shortened

— Molly Horak (@molly_horak) February 18, 2017

Buckner said the time lapse between water shutting off and distribution of free bottled water was too long

— Molly Horak (@molly_horak) February 18, 2017

"I think that people should be prepared for at least a little while to be self-sufficient" OWASA board member Heather Payne said

— Molly Horak (@molly_horak) February 18, 2017

Board expresses support for periodically reminding residents to have emergency water on hand, how to prepare for shortages

— Molly Horak (@molly_horak) February 18, 2017

"Our situation wasn't all that unique," Moreau said

— Molly Horak (@molly_horak) February 18, 2017

Much of the communication was one-to-one and many of the messages were operational and task-oriented, John Young said.

— Molly Horak (@molly_horak) February 18, 2017

"The terseness of the messages added fuel to the frantic population," Buckner said

— Molly Horak (@molly_horak) February 18, 2017

Payne asks if maintaining the Hillsborough interconnect would have helped allieviate the worst of the crisis

— Molly Horak (@molly_horak) February 18, 2017

"That interconnection saved us," Moreau said

— Molly Horak (@molly_horak) February 18, 2017

"Everyone will take a turn with an emergency, it's inevitable. As a region, we need to be ready," Ed Kerwin said

— Molly Horak (@molly_horak) February 18, 2017

Board agrees on the need for a final report detailing situation and the communications immediately following the incident

— Molly Horak (@molly_horak) February 18, 2017

Potential objectives for next meeting include email transparency, update on after-action reports, engineering reports

— Molly Horak (@molly_horak) February 18, 2017

Payne moves to adjourn, further discussion will occur at the public meeting on Thursday

— Molly Horak (@molly_horak) February 18, 2017

and we're out! i'm sure you all thoroughly enjoyed the twitter bombardment, now let the friday night festivities begin! pic.twitter.com/8aLo8Rebr0

— Molly Horak (@molly_horak) February 18, 2017

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