BRUNSWICK COUNTY — A year after Brunswick County commissioners rescinded its lawsuit against its contractor for the Northwest Water Treatment Plant, the facility is expected to be operational by the end of the year.
In an announcement from the county on Tuesday, the plant’s expanded water treatment capacity will be available in August 2026 and the low-pressure reverse osmosis system is expected to be operational by the end of calendar year 2026.
The plant’s primary function will be to remove per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), GenX and 1,4-dioxane from the Cape Fear River, the plant’s main water source. Once completed, the Northwest Water Treatment Plant will have a capacity of 36 million gallons per day using the new low-pressure reverse osmosis system and an expanded total capacity of 48 million gallons per day. This will make it one of the largest reverse osmosis plants in the nation.
READ MORE: Brunswick County lawsuit halted, insurer to complete delayed water treatment plant
The project’s surety, Zurich American Insurance Company and Federal Insurance Company, has been working with a management group since September 2025 to provide oversight of the project and ensure task completion by the construction contractor Oscar Renda Construction.
Mired by numerous setbacks, the $167-million project was originally slated for completion in December 2023. Oscar Renda Contracting faced its first formal warning on Nov. 20, 2023, when the county issued a notice of default anticipating the contractor would not meet the upcoming deadline. This led to a forbearance agreement in December 2023, setting a new completion date of May 1, 2024. After the contractor failed to meet the second deadline, the county issued another notice of default on July 9, 2024, followed by a second forbearance agreement in August 2024.
Ultimately, on July 25, 2025, the county terminated its contract with the company and filed a lawsuit against both the contractor and its surety for breach of contract, repeated delays, and poor workmanship.
However, the county rescinded its lawsuit in August 2025 after Zurich told the county they would be taking over the project and getting it back on track.
In the last year, crews have completed the new rapid mix structure to accommodate the expanded treatment capacity. Rapid mixing is a step in the drinking water treatment process that involves quickly blending coagulant chemicals into raw water to neutralize particle charge before it is sent to the next step of the treatment process.
- Crews also upgraded the existing pulsator clarifiers with the addition of super pulsator technology, which combines flocculation (gentle stirring to combine small neutral-charged particles into larger particles) and clarification functions in one basin.
The expanded treatment capacity also required the addition of eight new filters and a backwash equalization tank was needed as a source of backwash water for the additional filters and as a tank for the LPRO to pull water from.
There are still no expected changes to the original construction cost and the county reserves the right to deduct liquidated damages from the project cost due to the contractor’s delays. The county says there are no planned increases to any water rates due to the delays to this project.
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