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Welcome!

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The Triangle Area Water Supply Monitoring Project (TAWSMP) is a collaborative partnership among local governments dedicated to protecting and monitoring regional drinking water supplies through coordinated efforts. For more than 30 years, TAWSMP has conducted water quality monitoring and stream gauge analyses throughout the region, creating one of the most robust continuous water supply monitoring datasets in the nation. This long-term dataset provides invaluable information for water supply planning, watershed protection, regulatory compliance, emergency response, and scientific research. TAWSMP is implemented through a series of Interlocal Agreements among participating local governments, agreements between the Partners and Central Pines Regional Council (CPRC), and Joint Funding Agreements between the Partners and the United States Geological Survey (USGS).

Through this regional partnership, TAWSMP provides significant cost savings to participating communities by leveraging economies of scale and USGS funding. By jointly funding monitoring equipment, laboratory analysis, technical expertise, data management, and scientific services, Partners are able to access a level of water quality monitoring and analysis that would be substantially more expensive if conducted independently, maximizing the value of local investments while ensuring scientifically rigorous data collection and analysis. This collaborative approach reduces duplication of effort, improves efficiency, and allows communities of varying sizes to benefit from high-quality scientific data and technical support at a lower individual cost.

A Steering Committee composed of one representative from each Partner reviews and updates project agreements prior to each phase to ensure the program continues to meet evolving community needs. Phases last 5 years.

Browse the site for more information about this important regional initiative, and visit the Contact page if you have questions or would like additional information.

Perfluorinated Chemicals – TAWSMP Partner Research

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Unregulated synthetic or naturally-occurring chemicals that are not commonly monitored by water utilities are termed contaminants of emerging concern (CECs). More than 85,000 chemicals are registered in the United States and new chemicals and microorganisms continue to be identified. Some of these contaminants can be detected at extremely low levels in the environment by continuously improving laboratory and analytical methods. The health significance of these trace contaminants is often under review and the subject of further study and research.

An example category of a contaminant of emerging concern is perfluorinated chemicals or PFCs. PFCs are organofluorine compounds containing only carbon-fluorine bonds, carbon-carbon bonds and other heteroatoms (no carbon-hydrogen bonds).  These chemicals are used to make fluoropolymer coatings and products that resist heat, oil, stains, grease, and water that are found in a large number of consumer products such as non-stick coating surface for pans and other cookware, fabric protectors, furniture, cosmetics, household cleaners, and packaged food containers. The brand names well-known are: Teflon, Stainmaster, Scotchgard, and SilverStone.

Recent testing has detected these chemicals in drinking water supplies in the Triangle and other areas of North Carolina. The fact that a substance is detectable doesn’t immediately mean that a substance is harmful to humans. For CECs of immediate concern, the EPA will issue a health advisory, which is based on the best available peer-reviewed studies about the health effects of the unregulated chemical. Health advisories provide information on contaminants that can cause human health effects and are known or anticipated to occur in drinking water. EPA’s health advisories are non-enforceable and non-regulatory and provide technical information to states agencies and other public health officials on health effects, analytical methodologies, and treatment technologies associated with drinking water.  With modern laboratory methods, these substances can now be measured down to parts per trillion concentrations.  For comparison, 1 part per trillion is approximately the equivalent of one drop of water in 10 million gallons.

Triangle Area Water Supply Monitoring Project Partners understand the importance of responding to public concerns, as well as the need to fully understand the levels of these contaminants in our water supplies. Several Partners have completed or continue to perform sampling efforts for PFCs in their water systems. Below are links to monitoring, sampling, and analytical results for several TAWSMP Partners:

Read about the Town of Cary’s PFC sampling efforts and view analytical results here.

See the City of Durham’s PFC analytical results in Report 1 , Report 2.

25-year Trends Report (publication date July 18, 2018)

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As the population of the Triangle area in central North Carolina increases, the demand for good quality drinking water from streams and lakes within the upper Neuse and upper Cape Fear River Basins also increases. The U.S. Geological Survey examined temporal trends in water quality for 13 stream and 8 reservoir sites in the two basins on the basis of data collected during 1989–2013. Trends were analyzed using a fitted time-series model that accommodated for shifting trends and variations in streamflow at multiple time scales. Seventeen water-quality properties and constituents were evaluated, including specific conductance and major ions, nutrients, and organic carbon. Suspended solids and suspended sediment were examined at stream sites; chlorophyll a and Secchi transparency were examined at lake sites.

The investigation identified considerable changes in population, land cover, streamflow, and selected water-quality characteristics in the study area over the 25-year period. Water quality is influenced by multiple, often confounding factors, and thus may change in a non-uniform manner over time. Long-term monitoring is critical for tracking these trends and ensuring resiliency of water supplies for the future. Results from this study may promote the understanding of water-quality response to a growing population and land-cover changes and can assist water-resource managers in the Triangle area in tracking progress toward water-quality goals.

Take a look at the report here, and the data release here.

TAWSMP Wins Innovation Award

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The Triangle Area Water Supply Monitoring Project recently received a 2017 National Association of Development Organizations (NADO) Innovation Award. Each year, the Innovation Awards program honors NADO members for their creative approaches to advancing regional community and economic development and improved quality of life.  These projects have made significant impacts on their regions and demonstrate the diversity of services and program delivery provided by regional development organizations across the country. We are honored to accept this award!

2017 NADO Innovation Award Winners