Cape Fear Public Utility Authority (CFPUA) would like to provide the following update to our customers as we continue our recovery from Hurricane Florence. Our employees have been working around the clock since before Florence made landfall, in an effort to minimize her impact on our systems and to make sure our customers’ water remained safe to drink and in full supply. Today, our water and wastewater systems remain fully operational with electrical power from Duke Energy, supplemented by generator power.
CFPUA’s drinking water plants and groundwater well system remained fully operational during Hurricane Florence. Our Sweeney and Richardson plants and Monterey Heights well system produced and distributed over 75 million gallons of safe drinking water during the storm, thanks to the work of our employees who staffed the facilities throughout the hurricane. Fuel concerns on Monday were quickly addressed with help from the New Hanover County Emergency Operations Center, Springer-Eubank, Colonial Terminals Inc., and external contractors—and we thank them for their assistance. We made our announcement just before the resolution occurred because we wanted to err on the side of caution in the event the fuel situation could not be addressed.
As expected, CFPUA’s wastewater system bore the brunt of the storm. Sewer systems, in general, must follow the lowest elevations in their service areas to properly function. This means they follow rivers and streams which are the first to flood when a major storm occurs, let alone a hurricane involving more than two feet of rainfall. Wastewater treatment plants are often beside rivers and other major waterways because that is where their clean effluent is returned to the environment.
During hurricanes with major storm surge or flooding impacts, wastewater pipes can become overwhelmed, especially if manhole covers are moved by rising or flowing water. Stormwater issues, including debris-caused backups and an understandable inability to handle more than two feet of rain, can also cause millions of gallons of extra water to enter the sewer system.
Finally, because of the area’s low elevation, CFPUA operates more than 140 pump stations that move our customers’ waste to the treatment plants. These pump stations are “hotspots”, where any issue caused by flooding, power loss, or equipment failure can quickly result in a sanitary sewer overflow or SSO. To provide a comparison for the unique challenge CFPUA faced during the hurricane, the City of Charlotte operates fewer than 10 pump stations throughout a service area that includes one million people.
CFPUA’s wastewater staff worked around the clock to prepare before the storm. We inspected our treatment plants and pump stations, tested, fueled, and refueled over 120 emergency generators, to make sure that and other equipment would take over in the event of power losses. We also positioned our staff throughout our service area, while making sure they were safe, so they could address emergencies as soon as possible after the storm passed.
Our crews then worked in shifts 24/7 throughout the storm to keep the wastewater system operating as close to normal conditions as possible. As one can imagine, they faced several challenges because of Florence’s slow track over our service area.
We lost power to most of our 148 pump stations at some point during the storm, requiring emergency generators and other equipment to kick into operation. Duke Energy crews, when it was safe, began assisting CFPUA with restoring power to the affected stations. Commercial power has been restored to many stations, but many remain on a generator and CFPUA crews continue to monitor and refuel them as necessary.
Unfortunately, due to power loss and flooding, we experienced 21 sewer releases, including one at our Southside Wastewater Treatment Plant. On September 14, 5.25 million gallons of partially treated wastewater was released into the Cape Fear River due to the failure of two backup generators at the plant. Because the failures occurred during the height of the storm on Friday morning, it was not safe for our employees to immediately address the spill and repair the emergency generator. They had to wait until the winds dropped below 50 mph. As a result, the release could not be stopped for several hours.
As the State noted after we reported the spill on Friday, releases of this size are not uncommon during extreme storms. Because the SSO entered the Cape Fear River during Florence’s landfall, and in the middle of more than two feet of rain that stretched from the mouth of the Cape Fear River basin inland, the increased environmental impact due to this SSO is expected to be minimal because of the excessive rainfall and flooding conditions. Nonetheless, we will learn from this event and make our systems even more robust and reliable.
Again, today CFPUA’s drinking water and wastewater systems remain fully operational. In the coming days and weeks, CFPUA will complete the recovery process by:
- producing a full damage assessment to restore every aspect of our systems;
- continuing to work with Duke Energy to complete power restorations;
- compiling data on our systems to assist with future planning;
- informing the public to avoid placing storm debris over sewer cleanouts and water meter boxes to prevent damage and allow for proper reading; and
- reviewing CFPUA’s performance to further improve our emergency response for events.
CFPUA wishes to thank our customers for their patience during Hurricane Florence. We maintained water and sewer services to over 69,500 customers during this event and only very few customers experienced a brief service outage. We’d also like to thank our friends and colleagues in local and state government, and multiple external contractors for their assistance during this trying time. Finally, we would like to thank our dedicated staff for their service to our customers before, during, and now after, the storm. We are extremely proud to call them our colleagues.