Our Survival Depends on Clean and Abundant Water.

Clean and abundant water is critical for our current public health, as well as our future growth.  In our quickly urbanizing area, we are experiencing ever increasing pressure on our water supply.

During my tenure as a Wake County Board Commissioner, we have:

• Purchased more than 2,000 acres of open space to protect the Wake County water supplies

• Formed and led Wake County Water Partnership to bring together all stakeholders to develop a 50-year water policy for Wake County

• Adopted the “One Water” and green infrastructure concepts as official county policy

• Led the way in the state legislature to preserve riparian river buffers under state law – preserving Wake County’s water supplies

• Developed new programs to address well contamination and infrastructure repair in “donut hole” communities

• Funded and opened Robertson’s Millpond Preserve – a historically and environmentally significant blackwater swamp in Eastern Wake County

• Protected Falls Lake Rules from legislative interference through collaborative work with regional partners

Supporting Facts: 

• Wake County’s population is projected to DOUBLE in 20 years, which means growing between 50-100 people per day.

• Raleigh-Cary metro region is the fastest growing in the nation from 2000-2012. This means a 43.5% growth trend over the past decade.

• Our water quality is being challenged due to suburban sprawl. There has been a 242% increase in urban land coverage between 1991-2002, which means more impervious surface.

• Stormwater runoff is now our greatest source of pollution in Wake County. Examples include oil, gas, grease, nitrogen and phosphorus from fertilizers and more.

• More wastewater treatment plants, including unregulated small plants for private developments (325% increase).

Taking Action:

Protect our Water Supply Watersheds – We need to develop a region-wide plan that looks at our water supply watershed and determine best practices for current and future growth and adds the levels of protection for long-term water quality.

Add to our Water Supply Now – We need to identify additional sources of water now for future growth, yet there are no current plans for a comprehensive strategy of accessing the most water with the least environmental impacts. It’s time to get started before we start falling behind with our water needs.

Develop Regional Partnerships – We will have droughts in the future and it’s imperative that we begin to work with our regional leaders now to put a plan in place on how to allocate these precious resources that will benefit everyone.