Behind the Scenes, Distance Learning

Charlotte Water Distance Learning: The Journey of Water

Activity: Educational article about the journey of our water and its treatment process.

Age range: All ages

Diagram titled in blue caps font, The Journey of Charlotte's Water. Below a blue sky graphic of a city skyline is graphic rendering of a river and greenscapes and grey structures. Below the title appears a blue body of water titled in blue caps font, Catawba River. A dark blue pipe pumps dark blue water out of the river into a grey structure 1 - marked with blue font, Pump Station. Dark blue water continues out of that building into a larger grey building, 2 - Water Treatment Plant. Water now light blue continues out of that building via pipe to a tall water tower on a very tall stand, 3 - Charlotte Water. From the tower the light blue water leaves the tower and makes its way to both homes and fire hydrants, marked Water in blue font. From the homes a pipe with green water, marked Waste Water in green font flows to a large structure, 5 - Waste Water Treatment. and from there the water now dark blue again returns to the river. Adjacent to this journey are scenes of of pedestrians walking along a street near a storm drain marked with a 4. Underneath the drain, the pipe with dark blue water titled Storm Water flows into the river. Next to item 5 there is a graphic of a dump truck with brown material in it. It is unmarked other than a number 6 above it.

Our water goes on quite a journey from the Catawba River, through our treatment processes, up to our water towers, into your homes and businesses and back out again. In this lesson, we will provide you with some step-by-step insight into the full cycle of our water.

Step 1: Pumping the Water

Our Pump stations are located at Lake Norman and Mountain Island Lake. Raw water is pulled from the lakes and pumped to our three treatment plants – Lee S. Dukes Water Treatment Plant, Franklin Water Treatment Plant, and Vest Water Treatment Plant. This water is pumped at night when the cost of electricity is low. Water from Lake Normal flows by gravity to the Lee S. Duke Water Treatment Plant.

Step 2: Water Treatment

When the water arrives at the water treatments plants, it is cleaned through coagulation, flocculation, sedimentation, and filtration. An average of 108 million gallons of water is pumped at our water treatment facilities each day. After we treat the water, it is distributed to businesses, factories, schools, and your home!

Kris Del Valle, Water Treatment Plant Operator, explains more about the water treatment process.
Media alternative summary: This video provides an operator‑level walkthrough of the water treatment process, showing how raw water enters the facility, moves through filtration and chemical treatment stages, and is monitored for safety and quality. It visually demonstrates the equipment, controls, and steps the operator describes.

Diagram titled with white caps font top left, Water Treatment, depicts how water from nature is treated an moved via a 7 step journey for drinking in the home. On this diagram all water pipes are blue, bodies of water are light blue, all buildings and structures are grey and everything in between is light grassy green. All descriptive fonts are white and listed in a blue field on lower half of page. From the left is a blue area representing a lake with a pipeline connecting the natural body of water to stop 1 - Pump Station, We have pumps and filter stations located at Mountain Island Lake and Lake Norman. Water from Mountain Island goes to Franklin Water Treatment Plant and Vest Water Treatment Plant. Water diverted from Lake Norman flows to The Lee S. Duke Water Treatment Plant. From there the water moves to stop 2 - Raw Water Reservoir, Sediment falls out of suspension in the reservoir; a group of large covered round tanks is stop 3 - Coagulation, During coagulation, liquid aluminum sulfite or alum is added to untreated raw water. When mixed with the water this causes the tiny particles of dirt in the water to stick together or coagulate. At this same location, the water has an additional stop, stop 3a - Flocculation, Paddles in large tanks stir the alum and water mixture, causing them to stick together and form large, heavier particles called floc. Next is stop 4 - Sedimentation, the water and the floc particles move into sedimentation basins where the heavy floc particles settle to the bottom. The water then moves through pipes to a series of filtration tanks during Stop 5, Filtration - from the sedimentation basin, the water flows through a filter designed to move any remaining particles left in the water. The filters are made of layers of sand and carbon. From there the water moves on to the last leg of it journey before it reaches the home: Stops 6 and 7: Corrosion Control, additives and Fluoride are added and Disinfection and Fluoride - Fluoride is added to protect teeth. Clorine is added to kill any germs or contaminants and to keep water disinfected while it is pumped through 4200 miles of pipes to reach customers. In the bottom left corner of the page is the Charlotte Water logo in white font.

Step 3: Water Tower Storage

Once water has been treated at one of treatment plants, some of that water is pumped to a nearby water tower for storage and later distribution. Water towers also serve the purpose of pressurizing the distribution system. You can learn more about this step in the process by building your own water tower at home!

Step 4: Storm Water

Rainwater is another important factor in the journey of our water. The runoff from rainfall goes directly into a stormwater drain and straight into our streams. These drains are managed by the Storm Water Services department, who works year-round to manage the runoff from rainfall, reduce flooding, restore floodplains and protect the water quality of surface waters county-wide.​

Step 5: Wastewater Treatment

Once the wastewater leaves a business or home, it travels from your home, place of business or school through 4,200 miles of wastewater pipes to one of our treatment plants. The wastewater is separated into liquids and solids. The liquids are cleaned and put back into our creeks and streams, the solids are converted to biosolids.  ​

Henry Eudy, Wastewater Treatment Plant Supervisor, explains more about the wastewater treatment process.
Media alternative summary: This video presents a supervisory perspective on the wastewater treatment process, illustrating how wastewater flows through screening, aeration, clarification, and final disinfection. It visually supports the supervisor’s explanation of system operations, plant oversight, and regulatory compliance.

Diagram titled in white caps font Waste Water Treatment at top left describes the workflow of waste water treatment from residential home on its 10 step journey to the waterways. Landscape of the diagram is blue sky at the top, green space representing grass in the middle and the bottom depicts a water way connecting to a lake. All the structures described are using a graphic design of navy blue and light blue tones representing any body of water aspect, all pipes connecting everything are olive green. 1- residential home wit white caps font below it, Waste Water From Home Enters Sanitary Sewer; 2 - large gravity filter structure with tank is identified with white caps font as Primary Treatment: Grit Removal gravity pulls larger particles to the bottom and Primary Clarifier solids are separated from water by settling to the bottom of the clarifier; two green pipes leave that structure, one is item 3 - white caps font Sludge Solids move to the digester as identified by line pointing to green pipeline and the other is item 4 - white caps font Liquid and Small Solids point to another section of green pipe; from there material move through to two basins 5 - Aeration Basins: Air is circulated and bugs clean and move phosphorus and nitrates, the moving into item 6, Secondary Clarifier-Additional solids are separated from the liquid and piped back to the biosolids digester; from there the material follows the pipeline to item 7: Efficient Filtration in a round tank to filter out any small particles is followed by a trip to item 8: a tank for Disinfection with either UV or Chlorine and from there the pure water goes out to natural water source such as a lake. Now moving back to that second pipe routing to item 3; that material moves to item 9, a large round tank identified as a Digester- a bacterial process called digestion is used to reduce the amount of organic matter and the number of disease causing microorganisms; from that tank the material travels to a pipe to item 10, a building with a tank identified for Dewatering, the last bit of water is removed from the biosolids before it is loaded onto trucks where it will seek its final stop as Biosolids, used as a soil amendment and organic fertilizer for crops not used for human consumption. At very bottom right order of diagram is Charlotte Water logo in white font.

Step 6: Biosolids

You may be wondering, what are biosolids?

Biosolids are nutrient-rich byproducts of wastewater treatment. They can be used on hay fields as fertilizer. Through biosolids management, solid residue from wastewater treatment is processed to reduce or eliminate pathogens and minimize odors, forming a safe, beneficial agricultural product. Biosolids are carefully monitored and must be used in accordance with regulatory requirements.​

If you would like to read more about biosolids, please visit our biosolids page.

The Charlotte Water Distance Learning activities are provided in partnership with Discovery Place, Inc.