Yanceyville's Water Treatment Plant Getting Major Overhaul
Yanceyville Town Manager says water treatment plant repairs are extensive.
“They’re going to be in the weeds for a while trying to figure out what’s been done and what still needs to be done,” said Yanceyville Town Manager Kamara Barnett of the Clearwater Solutions (CWS) team that recently assumed operations and maintenance of the town’s water and wastewater treatment plants.
“But so far they’ve been very responsive,” Barnett continued, noting that she had been pleased with the attention to detail and commitment demonstrated thus far as they work to get the Yanceyville’s water system back online.
The town’s system failed following Tropical Storm Chantal in July of 2025, forcing the town to take the system off-line and begin purchasing water from the City of Danville.
In recent years, Yanceyville’s water filtration system has struggled to offset high levels of iron and manganese and turbidity of its raw water from Farmer Lake. High iron and manganese can tint the water brown. Turbidity is the measure of relative water clarity, indicating the level of suspended particles like silt, clay, microorganisms, and organic matter that scatter light.
While turbidity itself causes no negative health impacts, it interferes with the disinfection process as organic matter binds with chlorine to form trihalomethanes (TTHMs), a harmful byproduct of the disinfection process.
The heavy rains of Chantal dramatically decreased the raw water quality even more, overtaxing Yanceyville’s system.
“Increases in raw water turbidity and levels of iron and manganese as well as changes in pH required the water plant operations to be modified. The modification resulted in decreased filter run time and increased frequency of filter backwash to meet drinking water standards associated with the safe drinking water act,” read a statement issued by the town in July. “This increased filter backwash resulted in damage to the filters, and the water plant was unable to meet system demands with safe drinking water.”
Barnett explained that the project includes complete rehabilitation of the four (4) filters at the water plant, to include the removal and replacement of new filter media, replacement and repair of the filter valves and equipment and electrical upgrades to the filter control system.
The town had hoped to complete the project by March 11th the initial deadline associated to FEMA and NC Emergency Management funds that could be used to reimburse a portion of the emergency protective measures cost associated with the project, but Barnett suspects it will take longer given the rarity of Greenleaf Filter Systems used by the Yanceyville water system. Barnett said those systems are more popular in Europe, so they have had some challenges securing equipment and identifying a qualified contractor as there are only a couple in the state familiar with the system.
Meanwhile, the Town of Yanceyville is paying between $31,000 - $38,000 a month in water and electric charges to purchase and distribute water from the City of Danville to the approximate 700 customer on Yanceyville’s system.
The good news, Barnett explained, is that once the rehab project is complete, the water treatment and wastewater plants should both be in good shape and just require ongoing maintenance.
The bad news, she cautioned, is that any project costs not covered by FEMA or other disaster funding would likely need to come from the Special Projects line of the Enterprise Fund, which Town Council had hoped to invest in water and sewer line improvements.
The Town Council unanimously voted to approve Clearwater Solutions as the designated vendor for Water and Wastewater Services at its September meeting, replacing Inframark, which had provided services to the town since 2017. The cost of the contract remained relatively unchanged at approximately $65,000 per month.
Water Emergency Tests Old Plan
“We were just lucky that valve opened,” Barnett said of the infrastructure that had been put in place in 1992 to provide a backup water source for the Town of Yanceyville. “And I’m glad someone had the foresight to put that system in place.”
When North Elementary School was constructed in 1992, the school system began to purchase water from the City of Danville to meet the needs of that school. The water is pumped through a booster station in Providence that is owned by Caswell County. A water line was run farther down NC Highway 86 to create a connection point to the town’s water system that would allow the town to access water from the City of Danville in the event of an emergency.
Barnett expressed her appreciation for County Manager Scott Whitaker’s efforts in working with her to navigate and clarify that process as they discovered early on that the town was not an official party to the original 1992 agreement, which was actually between the County and the City of Danville.
The agreement creates some extra work for finance staff as the water bills are paid by Caswell County Schools, who must determine what portion of the bill is for North and what is for Yanceyville. The town is then invoiced that amount for reimbursement.
