Partnership and public outreach guide Charlotte Water’s largest-ever infrastructure project – Stowe Regional Water Resource Recovery Facility

By Victoria Phillips

Discover our feature story in the September 2024 issue of Water, Energy, and Technology, which highlights our community-first construction efforts in the Stowe Regional Water Resource Recovery Facility Community Benefits Project.

Catawba River surrounded by forests and Stowe Regional Water Resource Recovery Facility construction site — Aerial image of Catawba River, surrounding forests, and Stowe Regional Water Resource Recovery Facility construction.

For our Community Benefit Project, the 90 acres of land surrounding the Stowe Regional Water Resource Recovery Facility (Stowe RWRRF) will be used for:

A paved greenway along the new road and bridge that provides views of Long Creek and a connection to the Catawba Thread Trail.
A future Educational Walking Trail that will include interactive activities.
A Public Meeting Space in the new Stowe administration building that will be available to the public for meetings, workshops, and events.
A Collaborative Partnership with the Catawba Lands Conservancy to identify and develop future trails and trail connections on the 90-acre Stowe Community Benefit Project land.

Community-First Construction

To ensure the project best served residents, in 2019 Charlotte Water formed a Community Stakeholder Committee to understand the community’s concerns and needs. Committee members included school staff members, elected officials, Catawba Indian Nation representatives, residents, and nonprofit staff who live and work near the project site.

Committee members met regularly with Stowe project staff to stay informed on the project’s development, discuss their concerns, and provide feedback that would help improve the project design. Additionally, Stowe project staff learned about the rich history of the river and its cultural significance to the community via a history education series taught by some committee members.

Charlotte water team and local community member discuss something enthusiastically with their hands gesturing in the air — Charlotte Water team engages with community members at Stowe RWRRF groundbreaking.

“The whole idea behind community use is as we build wastewater facilities, we also want to have a community component that the community itself can use and the neighbors can take advantage of.” – Charlotte Water Director Angela Charles.

Angela Charles, Charlotte Water Director, smiles and reaches out for a handshake — Angela Charles, Charlotte Water Director, engages with the community at the Stower RWRRF Groundbreaking ceremony.

Notable community engagement efforts include:

Online and in-person community visioning workshops
30,000 mailers sent to surrounding residents and digital outreach campaigns
A community survey that solicited feedback from 450 participants and heavily influenced the Community Benefit Project design and development.

Ongoing educational efforts include partnerships with local schools and colleges for career fairs, educational tours of the facility, and workshops.

Explore this incredible article to learn more about our community-centered design and check out our Community Benefit Project page to stay up to date with this important cornerstone of our project.

“Thanks to a robust amount of public outreach and strong community relations between Charlotte Water and its public, this Community Benefits Project will serve as a cornerstone of the Stowe RWRRF.” – Will Shull, Nicole Bartlett (article authors)