Water & Wastewater

Water Resources Planning

Water use and conservation is an important issue to organizations in RTP. Water is provided to the Wake County portion of RTP by the Town of Cary from Jordan Lake. The City of Durham provides water to the Durham County regions of the Park primarily from Lake Michie and the Little River Reservoir. With RTP employing approximately 42,000 people in the Park it is important that organizations consider water conservation measures to ensure the least impact on the community. Information on irrigation requirements for City of Durham water customers is available from the City of Durham website; Town of Cary water customers can get information on irrigation requirements from the Town of Cary website.

Wastewater Treatment

Wastewater leaving the park is managed through either the Cary Wastewater Treatment Plant or the Durham County Wastewater Treatment Plant. Organizations in the Park may be subject to limitations on certain substances in their wastewater. To learn more see the links below.

Water Efficiency

Water efficiency measures can reduce water and sewer costs by up to 30 percent. In addition, energy savings can be realized by using less energy for heating, pumping and treating water. Environmental benefits include increased water available to local stream ecosystems and underground aquifers, and decreased energy, infrastructure and chemicals needed for local water treatment.

Possible water efficiency measures include:

• Revise groundskeeping irrigation schedules.
• Revise HVAC temperature ranges and schedules. This can reduce water consumption from cooling tower systems.
• Reuse cooling tower blow-down for non-consumption purposes (e.g. irrigation).
• Install of high-efficiency fixtures in bathrooms, labs, and kitchen facilities.
• Recycle water discharges, where possible, for utility plant use.
• Discontinue use of exterior fountains and convert them into planters or other decorative features.
• Install restroom urinals that do not use water.
• Consider reusing RO reject water for non-potable applications.
• Autoclaves and sterilizers often operate 24 hours per day but are idle about 16 hours, so shut them off when they are not in use (or install an automatic shut-off feature).
• Increase the efficiency of autoclaves and sterilizers by adjusting flow rates to the minimum ones recommended by the manufacturer.
• Eliminate single-pass colling for equipment by using a process or cooling loop.
• Use a counter-current rinsing system for equipment rinsing (use the cleanest water for final rinse).
• Select as few cycles as possible for dishwashers.
• Many pieces of lab equipment are "on" continuously, even when the process runs only a few hours per day; use a control or solenoid valve in these applications or use shut-off valves or timers that operate during working hours.