For most of us,
that’s all we want to know.
But if we knew more, we would look
at that clean water
with a little more wonder and appreciation.
Here in Oxford, our water comes out of Kerr Lake.
It is treated to make
it drinkable.
Then it is pumped through more than 20 miles of pipe
(two
pipes, 20” in diameter) to the two water towers in Oxford.
Gravity pushes the water down out of the water towers to our faucets –
clean,
clear, cool, and delicious!
When we’re finished with it, the water goes down the drain.
But
it’s no longer clean water.
We add soaps, cleaners, dirt, germs – all
kinds of mess –
and flush it away. Not our problem anymore!
Wastewater travels through a network of sewer pipes
to the Oxford Wastewater
Treatment Plant.
There, it is filtered and treated.
It is then released
into Fishing Creek, which flows into
the Tar River, the Pamlico Sound,
and the Atlantic Ocean.
So it’s not ‘our’ problem anymore.
But if we – at our City’s Wastewater Treatment Plant –
don’t do a good job cleaning that wastewater
before releasing it into the creek,
it contributes to the growing water quality problems in the river basin.
It affects wildlife downstream, and it also affects us
when we fish or swim at the beach,
or when we eat seafood from North Carolina's coastal waters.
