Wake County officials pitch 50-year "One Water" plan to Wendell commissioners

Wendell — Nancy Daley, Wake County's water resources program manager, told the Wendell Board of Commissioners that the county's draft 50-year One Water Plan aims to coordinate municipalities, utilities, farmers and residents to secure long-term water supply and quality amid projected population growth and climate change.

"This is our opportunity to be proactive, plan ahead to make sure that we have enough water to support our future population growth and economic development needs," Daley said, outlining four focus areas: optimizing water supply, improving water quality and hydrology (including green stormwater infrastructure), land conservation and flood resilience.

Why it matters: Wake County is projected to continue rapid population growth and increased water demand. Daley said the plan looks beyond conventional supply equations to include surface water, groundwater, wastewater and stormwater together and to align with the county's Plan Wake land-use framework.

Key details: Daley said the plan grew from a 2022 county board decision and two years of public and stakeholder engagement, including more than 2,800 survey responses, technical workshops and outreach to agricultural and environmental justice groups. The plan identifies strategies to:

- improve regional coordination among water providers and municipalities so infrastructure expansion is planned collectively; - expand nature-based stormwater solutions such as rain gardens and green roofs to reduce runoff and localized flooding; - conserve and protect open space and farmland to preserve natural recharge and stream baseflows; and - increase flood resilience through public education, dam and culvert assessments, and capacity planning for extreme weather events.

Questions and local concerns: Commissioners asked about private-well protections, updating storm-design rainfall curves, and water-plant security. Daley said the draft includes groundwater vulnerability modeling and coordination steps for private-well testing and support, and that state and regional efforts are under way to update design storm data so infrastructure is sized to current climate realities.

Next steps: The county concluded public comment on the draft and will review submissions; Daley said she expects the plan to go to the Wake County Board of Commissioners for final approval in early 2026 and then for implementation through partnership workgroups.

Local context: Mark Collins, Wendell's town manager and the town's representative to the Wake County Water Partnership, urged commissioners to continue offering staff expertise to the partnership so municipal perspectives are represented during strategy development and implementation.

What remains open: Daley and the county requested continued local staff support, participation in workgroups and help promoting water-conservation measures to residents. The draft includes none of the ordinances or funding commitments as final policy; those are expected to be addressed in subsequent implementation steps.

Provenance: Presentation and Q&A recorded during Item 4b of the meeting (start 00:29:01; finish 00:52:02).