The Hillsborough Water Treatment Plant has received the North Carolina Area Wide Optimization Award for surpassing federal and state drinking water standards in 2024.

The plant was one of 63 to receive recognition by the Public Water Supply Section of the N.C. Division of Water Resources. The Hillsborough plant also received this recognition for 2023, 2021 and 2017.

While all drinking water systems must meet strict state and federal drinking water standards, the award winners met performance goals that are significantly more stringent than state and federal standards. Within Orange County, Orange Water and Sewer Authority also received the award.

Awards are given each year to water systems that demonstrate outstanding turbidity removal, a key test of drinking water quality. Turbidity is a measure of the cloudiness or haziness of water caused by individual particles that can interfere with disinfection and can provide a medium for microbial growth. Microbes are microscopic particles that occur naturally but can include harmful bacteria and viruses.

The turbidity rule requires that 95% or more of the plant’s monthly samples be less than or equal to 0.3 nephelometric turbidity units. Hillsborough’s samples exceeded that by being less than 0.1 NTUs for 95% of the samples.

More Information

The Area Wide Optimization Program is a joint program between the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and states. It was developed to help water systems meet successively more stringent regulations and to achieve higher levels of water quality. North Carolina has participated in the program since 2000.

For a complete listing of award recipients, see the state’s news release. To learn more about Hillsborough’s water quality, see the town’s About Water page.