The town’s largest sewage pumping station has returned to operations, following damage from Tropical Storm Chantal in July.

In late December, new pumps, motors, and electrical and control systems were installed and tested in the pumping station near the Eno River. Three temporary bypass pumps the town had been renting were able to be removed the week of Dec. 22.

The station transports about 75% of the sewage of Hillsborough customers to the Wastewater Treatment Plant for processing to return clean water to the environment. The severe flooding from Chantal damaged the pumps and other equipment, contributing to sewage spills on July 7 and requiring restoration work for the station, which is to be upsized and relocated. Preliminary cost estimates for the restoration are $1.03 million. The amount is in addition to the costs required to upsize and move the station.

Resiliency Projects

Work on the project to increase the pumping station size and to relocate it to higher ground out of the Eno River’s 500-year floodplain already had started when Chantal brought about 10 inches of rain to the Hillsborough area last summer.

That work and work on a project to build an emergency drinking water booster pump station continues. The booster pump station will interconnect with Orange Water and Sewer Authority as part of regional water redundancy efforts. The town is working on acquiring property or easements for both projects.

The two projects were awarded federal grants in August 2023 from the Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities Program, which funded disaster preparation projects. The Federal Emergency Management Agency announced the end of the program in April 2025, canceling the town’s grants for floodway mitigation and resiliency, which totaled nearly $7 million and had not been paid out when the announcement was made. About $29,146 that had been submitted already for reimbursement for the drinking water project is pending payment from FEMA to the North Carolina Department of Public Safety.

The estimated costs for Hillsborough’s projects are more than $10 million for the sewer pumping station and $2 million for the water booster station. The federal government canceled over $5.1 million in funds for the wastewater project and $831,418 for the drinking water project.

The town has applied for a hazard mitigation grant for the projects and also is applying for state and tribal assistance grants for the water project. That project was assigned congressional funds but was using the Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities grant instead.

Funding Lawsuit

North Carolina and 19 other states sued FEMA in July over its decision to cancel the BRIC program. Last month, a U.S. District Court judge ruled the program was unlawfully ended.

“Hillsborough is pleased to learn U.S. District Judge Richard G. Stevens issued a summary judgment restoring BRIC funding to North Carolina and numerous other states. Congress had approved funding for this critical program before it was abruptly terminated,” Mayor Mark Bell said. “Hillsborough looks forward to learning more about the details of the ruling and moving forward with our BRIC projects.”

As of the end of December, the North Carolina Division of Emergency Management had not yet received an update on how FEMA will implement the ruling.