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The Stowe Facility Celebrates Huge Milestones in 2023!

Birds-eye view of a large scale water utility project under construction, structures are being built around dirt, and a river flows behind it along with another facility appearing beyond the river
Stowe Regional Water Resource Recovery Facility construction site

It feels so good to witness a dream becoming a reality!

Incredible progress has been made this year on our new wastewater treatment plant, the transformational Stowe Regional Water Resource Recovery Facility. Construction is already 25 percent complete!

We broke ground on this state-of-the-art facility in June thanks to a strong regional partnership with the Cities of Belmont and Mount Holly. More than 200 guests were in attendance at the groundbreaking ceremony, including our esteemed guest speakers Charlotte Mayor Vi Lyles; Dr. Wenonah Haire, Executive Director, and DeLesslin “Roo” George-Warren, Tribal Consultant, from the of the Catawba Cultural Center and Catawba Nation; John Nicholson, Chief of Staff of the EPA Southeast Region; and Shadi Eskaf, Director of Water Infrastructure at NC Department of Environmental Quality; and Angela Charles, Director of Charlotte Water. Watch our commemorative video about the project’s history.

4 people wearing business attire and white hardhats hold shovels for a ceremonial ground breaking of a water utility ground-breaking; a large banner hangs behind them with an image rendering of the project and its title Stowe Regional Water Resource Recovery Facility Groundbreaking Ceremony
Stowe Groundbreaking Ceremony, pictured left to right: Shadi Eskaf, Mayor Vi Lyles, Angela Charles, John Nicholson.

Located along the Catawba River close to where it meets Long Creek, Stowe Facility is on track to be fully operational in 2026 and serve northwestern Mecklenburg County and eastern Gaston County. Initially, the Stowe Facility will have the capacity to process 15 million gallons of wastewater daily, which will eventually grow to 25 million gallons. This is significant considering Stowe’s service area population is expected to grow 136 percent between 2014 and 2034 from 75,226 to 177,166 residents.

One major benefit of the project is that it will replace two aging municipal water treatment plants in Belmont and Mount Holly with one new one, reducing the amount of discharge recycled back into the Catawba River. Stowe Facility also will be able to provide more economic and sustainable wastewater management services to our customers, while safeguarding the ability to treat and manage future wastewater flow projections. By using the latest technologies and cutting-edge treatment techniques to clean and purify wastewater, water recycled back into the natural environment will be near drinking water quality. The project likewise includes a preserved 90-acre parcel of land adjacent to the property to protect wildlife, which will feature walking trails for the community’s benefit.

3 rectangular water reclamation pits are being constructed and filled with rocks along a river, behind them is dirt, construction supplies, buildings and an a yellow excavator
Mount Holly Pump Station construction site

In 2023. we made significant progress on various construction projects associated with Stowe Facility, including the Stowe Influent Pump Station and Headworks and Long Creek Pump Station, Stowe Access Road and Bridge, Belmont Pump Station and Force Mains, Mount Holly Pump Station and laying wastewater pipelines. Additionally, we reached a historic milestone by introducing our inaugural Stowe Facility team members. Doug Shoutd will serve as the facility’s first Supervisor while Tara Romaine will be its first Chief Operator. Congratulations to you both! Get to know Stowe’s First Staff in this short interview video.

Dive Deeper: 

~ Timelapse video of the Stowe Bridge installation 

~ Visualization video of Horizontal Directional Drilling (HDD) under the Catawba River in Mount Holly (as seen on QC News) 

~ Animated explainer video of bathymetric river surveys in Belmont 

birds-eye view of a bridge being constructed over a creek surrounded by green trees, on the far side are construction crew vehicles and piles of dirt
Stowe South Access Bridge with multiuse path.
 

Stowe Facility made waves in the media as more people learned about the project and its merits. We received coverage in Municipal Sewer & Water Magazine, Queen City News, The Charlotte Observer, Charlotte Business Journal, and Engineering News-Record, among others. Our dedicated team spread the word in person too, traveling to present about the project at events like the Design-Build Institute of America Conference in the spring and the American Water Works Association NC One Water Conference in the fall. Closer to home, we were pleased to interact with more than 1,200 community members at local events this year such as the Catawba Riverkeeper Foundation’s Catawba Riversweep and Charlotte-Mecklenburg Storm Water Services’ Creek Week. Also, we continued to partner with local schools via our STEAM initiative. One special highlight was attending Whitewater Middle School’s Career Fair in May to speak with students about pursuing careers in science and engineering. What a great way to engage with the next generation!

collage of 4 images with a blue banner section at bottom with the words in white caps font, Whitewater Middle School Career Fair. The 5 images include: a mentor in lime shirt and student with red shirt black sweater stand next to a blue panel leaning against a white table featuring a pipe and valve assembly with copper piping, on the table are a selection of giveaway items; next image is a mentor in blue polo shirt with student in plaid shirt standing behind a table of giveaway items including t-shirts, next to them are 2 pop-up banner stands one with a collage of images and the other with an image of a construction work with the company logo above, Garney and the words in black font Take the next step, build your future. In the next image are 2 mentors in baseball hats standing next to the same 2 pop-up banner stands, the fourth image included a pop-up banner stand image of a young woman with braided hair and purple shirt with bullets about job benefits,, to her right are 6 people, 2 of which appeared in the first image, lined up behind a green table with giveaway items
Whitewater Middle School Career Fair

We invite you to check out the Stowe 2023 Wrapped video and newsletter to learn more about Stowe Facility’s groundbreaking ceremony, construction highlights, new hires, press coverage, community events and plans for flowing smoothly into 2024: https://bit.ly/stowe2023wrapped. For more information about Stowe Facility, and to sign up for project updates, visit https://stoweregionalwrrf.com.

We can’t wait to experience the next set of milestones on this important project! Happy New Year!

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