Special to Iredell Free News

The City of Statesville has received the prestigious N.C. Area Wide Optimization Award by the N.C. Division of Water Resources.

Statesville’s Water Treatment facility is one of 64 plants in N.C. that received this honor, which is part of a state effort to enhance the performance of existing surface water treatment facilities.

While all drinking water systems must meet strict state and federal drinking water standards, Statesville and the other recipients met performance goals that are significantly more stringent than state and federal standards. In 2020, nearly 2.5 million North Carolina residents were served by these award-winning plants.

The award focuses on turbidity removal, a key test of drinking water quality. Turbidity is a measure of the cloudiness or haziness of water caused by individual particles that can interfere with disinfection and provide a medium for microbial growth. Microbes are microscopic particles that occur naturally but can include harmful bacteria and viruses.

According to Harry Hull, Statesville’s Water Plant supervisor, the city’s plant has been “doing very well in maintaining filter turbidity results well under the required measure 100% of the time. Our team works hard to keep our water quality in the city as high as possible.”