Wake County One Water Plan (2026)
The Wake County One Water Plan is a 50-year countywide water planning document that coordinates drinking water supply, wastewater treatment, stormwater management, groundwater protection, and flood mitigation across Wake County, North Carolina. The plan was published in December 2025 and adopted by the Wake County Board of Commissioners on February 2, 2026.[1]
The plan is intended to guide water-related decisions under projected population growth from approximately 1.1 million residents in 2024 to more than 2 million residents by 2070, as well as address the increased water demand, flooding risk, and water quality impacts associated with land development and climate variability.
The principles the plan are:
- Recognize that all water has value.
- Seek water solutions that provide economic, environmental and social co-benefits,
- Advanced regional collaboration.
- Support access to clean and abundant water for all.
The plan applies a “One Water” framework that treats surface water, groundwater, stormwater, and wastewater as interconnected parts of a single system. Under this framework, land use, infrastructure, and water management decisions are evaluated for their combined effects on water availability, water quality, and flooding rather than as separate issues.[2]
Drinking water supply
[edit | edit source]Wake County’s population is projected to grow from more than 1.1 million residents in 2024 to over 2 million residents by 2070. Average daily drinking water demand across the county’s major water utilities is projected to increase from about 85 million gallons per day in 2021 to approximately 195 million gallons per day by 2070.
Most Wake County residents receive drinking water from municipally owned surface water systems, while others rely on private drinking water wells or privately owned community water systems. Approximately 85 percent of residents are served by municipal systems drawing from surface water sources such as Falls Lake and Jordan Lake. An estimated 90 000 residents rely on private wells, and about 85 000 residents are served by privately owned community systems.
Based on projected growth, the plan finds that all municipal water systems serving Wake County residents will require some combination of water supply expansion, treatment expansion, or inter-system agreements during the planning period. Rather than identifying a single new water source, the plan focuses on reducing per-capita demand and extending existing supplies through conservation, reuse of stormwater and greywater, and protection of groundwater resources.[2]
Groundwater
[edit | edit source]Groundwater supplies drinking water to approximately 15 percent of Wake County’s population, primarily through private wells and small community systems. The plan identifies risks to groundwater availability and quality, including naturally occurring contaminants, contamination from human activities, and localized depletion caused by well density and limited aquifer storage.
In eastern Wake County, naturally occurring radionuclides are identified as a significant concern. The plan estimates that roughly one in five private wells in this area has unsafe radionuclide levels, requiring testing and, in some cases, additional treatment. As a result, groundwater protection is treated in the plan as a countywide drinking water issue rather than solely a rural concern.[2]
Stormwater, runoff, and water quality
[edit | edit source]Watershed-scale hydrologic modeling included in the plan projects that future land development and climate conditions will reduce groundwater infiltration while increasing stormwater runoff volumes, flood frequency, and pollutant loading to streams and lakes. Wake County is divided into 13 major drainage subbasins that do not align with municipal boundaries, and the plan emphasizes that stormwater decisions in one jurisdiction can affect downstream conditions elsewhere in the watershed.
To address these projected impacts, the plan promotes green stormwater infrastructure, nature-based solutions, and site-specific practices intended to slow runoff, improve infiltration, and reduce nutrient and sediment pollution entering surface waters.
Modeled effects of plan strategies
[edit | edit source]The plan evaluates the effects of its recommended strategies using watershed modeling and compares them to a modeled future condition without intervention. Under scenarios that include stormwater and greywater reuse, the plan estimates that approximately 3.7 billion gallons of stormwater per year could be captured for reuse. These scenarios reduce peak flow events in a majority of modeled subbasins and reduce nutrient and sediment loads by approximately 4 to 6 percent compared with baseline future conditions.
Scenarios emphasizing green stormwater infrastructure and site-specific practices project larger changes, including a reduction of about 63 percent in annual mean total runoff, with peak flow events reduced in 8 of the 12 modeled subbasins and nutrient and sediment loads reduced by roughly 14 to 22 percent. Land conservation and preservation strategies are modeled to reduce annual mean runoff by approximately 29 percent, while flood resilience measures reduce runoff by about 25 percent under modeled conditions.[2]
Land conservation and flood risk
[edit | edit source]The plan treats land conservation, floodplain preservation, and agricultural land protection as functional components of water infrastructure. Preserved land is modeled to reduce downstream flood peaks, improve groundwater recharge, and limit pollutant transport compared with developed land uses. Flood resilience strategies include both engineered measures, such as increased storage and conveyance capacity, and non-structural approaches, including floodplain restoration and watershed-scale coordination.
Implementation and monitoring
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Recommended actions in the plan are organized by thematic focus areas and classified as short-, medium-, or long-term. The plan calls for identification of responsible entities, tracking of quantitative performance metrics, and periodic review and update of strategies approximately every five years to reflect changing conditions and new data.
Adoption
[edit | edit source]On February 2, 2026, the Wake County Board of Commissioners voted unanimously to approve the Wake County One Water Plan as the county’s official 50-year water resource plan.