Complete

The Yadkin WTP raw water intake came online in February 2024, and accounts for a significant portion of the 'other' line type. Union County is expected to replace/upgrade all of its meters to AMI meters in 2025, and the statistic for oldest meters in the system will become out of date. This also accounts for the large number of meter replacements for 2024.

Hydrants are routinely flushed in isolated and dead-end areas at weekly to quarterly intervals depending on location. The County also initiates hydrant flushing in response to customer complaints about taste/odor, water line and valve repairs, when hydrant inspections from the fire department indicate a need, and any other time the water in the system is suspected to have been contaminated. Additionally, flushing takes place during yearly system disinfectant conversion for the entire system.

Only priority (critical) valves are exercised annually. All other valves are exercised every three years.
On August 1, 2022 (Effective Sept 1, 2022), UC Water's Cross Connection Control Program was adopted, allowing UC Water to require testing and inspect backflow prevention devices, implement an enforcement response plan, and issue penalties for violations.

The County is in the middle of an AMI deployment that is expected to be completed by early 2025. All meters are being replaced or retrofitted depending on their age and condition to conform with the new standards.
Most residences in the County were built post-1980; this fact fulfills the general intent of a plumbing retrofit program.

Since adopting a Water Use Ordinance in 2015 (described under Water Conservation), the County has routinely communicated with customers through bill inserts, social media and email to ensure awareness of restricted water uses and noncompliance penalties. Tips for water conservation are also sent to customers frequently and made available online (www.unionconserves.com). We also conduct conservation outreach at community events and conduct water quality demonstrations at schools and plan to continue expanding such outreach efforts as opportunities become available and staffing allows.

The leak detection program has been suspended since only two leaks have been found in the entire county using acoustic leak detection. It isn’t feasible to continue the program at this time due to the cost and time we put into the program, yielding so few leaks.

The County began using an increasing block rate structure in 2001, and the structure changed to be highly punitive at usage >10,000 gal/month in 2008 in response to high usage during the drought of 2007-2009. The high charges above 10,000 gal/month has reduced usage at these tiers significantly since implementation.

On May 4, 2015, the Union County Board of Commissioners adopted a new Water Use Ordinance that limits spray irrigation to a maximum of 3 days per week, year round. The Ordinance also allows for additional water restrictions during times of water shortage including drought and system capacity limitations. The County educates customers about this Ordinance through bill inserts, social media, and participation in local events.

The County has implemented a new program to connect residents with professional irrigation contractors for residential irrigation efficiency evaluations. The program was launched in April 2023.

Many of the upcoming and proposed changes to Union County's programs are driven by our Yadkin River to Rocky River Interbasin Transfer Certificate. Specifically, revisions to our hydrant use and meter replacement programs as well as the new residential irrigation program address aspects of the conservation and drought management plans approved as part of the certificate.

Year-round population is calculated as the number of non-zero residential accounts x 2.96 (Union County persons per household, https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/unioncountynorthcarolina,US/PST045219)

A shapefile of our utility is currently not available

Union County meters all connections to the system, including temporary connections such as permitted hydrant use.

The County is in the process of revising its bulk water permit and temporary hydrant meter rental programs. The changes will improve cross connection control for authorized hydrant users and are expected to reduce apparent water losses by improving water use accounting for the permit program and reducing theft from hydrants.

The system process water is significantly higher than 2023 with the new Yadkin River WTP online.

Wingate's contract provides for all water required by the Town, with no maximum amount listed. Wingate is a co-applicant on Union County's IBT granting transfer from the Yadkin River Basin to the Rocky River Basin.

At the intake the source water pH and NTU is monitored daily. Colilert samples are pulled when we are notified of upstream spills, and PFAS and Algae samples are taken quarterly. The system transfers surface water from the Yadkin to the Rocky River sub-basin, as regulated by the 2017 Interbasin Transfer Certificate.

Regarding purchase from Anson County -- our new Yadkin River Water Treatment Plant was operational as of February 2024 and it offset the water that we purchased from Anson County. We purchased water from Anson County from January-February of 2024 while the plant was still offline.

The County practices year-round conservation, requiring all customers to irrigate a maximum of 3 days per week regardless of drought status.

The County has received an IBT Certificate for a new water supply from Lake Tillery on the Yadkin River in May 2017. The new water treatment plant came online in February 2024.

The capacity at the Catawba River Water Treatment Plant was successfully expanded from 36mgd to 40mgd in 2021. The County and its Joint Venture partner LCWSD intend to expand the facility again in the late 2020s.

The County also has a Water Use Ordinance that can be implemented during capacity constraints if needed."

Construction for Grassy Branch WRF and 12 Mile Creek WRF will be beginning in late 2024. Capacity for 12 Mile Creek WRF will go up from 7.5MGD to 9.0 MGD, current anticipated construction completion date June 2027. Capacity for Grassy Branch WRF will go up from 0.05MGD to 0.12MGD per the negotiated Special Order of Consent, current anticipated construction completion date is December 2025.

Construction began in 2024 for expansion of Twelve Mile Creek WRF to 9MGD capacity.

Union County worked with the state on design and constraints for Special Orders by Consent (SOC) related to ongoing inflow and infiltration issues leading to exceeded capacity on permit NC0085812 (Grassy Branch WRF). The SOC was approved by Union County Board of County Commissioners on April 4th, 2022. Construction began in late 2024 to expand Grassy Branch WRF capacity from 0.05 MGD to 0.12 MGD.

Union County also has a land application system at the Olde Sycamore WRF, permit number WQ0011928. The permitted capacity of the facility is 0.150MGD, with the AADD measuring 0.045MGD and the MDD measuring 0.094MGD for 2024.

On April 12, 1996, Union County and the City of Charlotte entered into an agreement for Charlotte to provide up to 3 million gallons of allocated wastewater capacity to the County from the McAlpine Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant. This contract is perpetual in duration.

Our wastewater interconnect data actually does in fact indicate that the Wastewater discharge from Union County to Monroe was 1.454 MGD over 366 days, which is similar to discharges from previous years.

The average day demand projections were developed by Union County's 2024 CWWMP by Brown and Caldwell. Population projections were calculated from average day demand projections, taking into account the percentage of residential usage in Union County's system, and the average residential gallons per capita day factor of 70.

"The County was awarded an Interbasin Transfer certificate to supply a proposed Yadkin River Water Treatment Plant to be located in northeastern Union County in May 2017. The County's IBT Certificate is based on a maximum month average daily demand per the IBT statute at the time when it was developed and approved, whereas the facility designs are for maximum day demand. The calculated ratio between the two measures was approximately 1.22. The County's IBT request of 23 MGD max month corresponds to our projected 2050 demand in the Rocky River Basin Service Area of 28 MGD for max day. The Yadkin River Water Treatment Plant came online in February 2024.