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Johnston County Water Treatment Plant Changes for March

3/1/2026

Beginning March 1, the Johnston County Water Treatment Plant will temporarily stop feeding ammonia with chlorine for disinfection and start feeding chlorine only for all Johnston County water customers on the Johnston West water distribution system, which will affect all Town of Four Oaks water customers.

The Town of Four Oaks purchases water from Johnston County Public Utilities, which is why our customers are affected by this process change. 

 State and federal regulations require that all public water systems feed chlorine only for at least three weeks each year to ensure that no bacteria are present which may have adapted to the ammonia in the water.

Customers that use kidney dialysis machines should be aware that the water will contain more chlorine for about six weeks and will return to a chlorine and ammonia mixture on or about April 14, 2025. The chlorine only water can be toxic to tropical fish. Most customers will not notice a difference in their water, but some may detect a chlorine odor and might observe a slight color change.

The Town of Four Oaks, in conjunction with the County, will conduct system wide flushing for all water distribution systems during this period to speed the removal of chloramines from the system. The flushing process may result in some minor and temporary discoloration of water that does not affect water quality.