The Catawba River Water Treatment Plant is a Joint Venture wholly owned and operated by the two joint venturers, Lancaster County Water & Sewer District in South Carolina and Union County in North Carolina.

In 1991 the two joint venturers determined that, by joining together to construct a new water treatment plant for their mutual benefit, rather than each separately constructing its own new water plant, certain economies of scale and a long term secure source of high-quality potable water can be achieved which will result in long term savings and other tangible benefits for their respective customers.

The treatment plant construction was completed in 1993 and started delivering drinking water to each county in late April of 1993. The original plant treatment capacity was 12 million gallons per day. In 1998 the plant had an expansion to a capacity of 18 million gallons per day. In 2003 there was another expansion bringing the plant capacity to 36 million gallons per day.

Since its start-up the treatment plant has received numerous awards:
SC Rural Water Association Drinking Water excellence Award 1998
SC Rural Water Association Drinking Water excellence Award 2001

Environmental Protection Agency and South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control Awards for “Successfully achieving the optimization performance goals of Area-Wide Optimization Program” 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007 and in 2007 an additional Award for continuously achieving the Optimization Goals for 5 straight years.

Also in 2007 a “Water Fluoridation Quality Award” was presented by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention - United States Department of Health & Human Services.
We are extremely proud of these accomplishments and continuously strive to achieve the standards needed to receive these awards.