Developing a Digital Integrated Water and Wastewater Utility Master Plan

At a Glance

• An interactive dashboard serves as a decision-making tool to communicate comparative cost- and system-capacity impacts of proposed alternatives, as well as facilitate adaptation of the master plan to future goals and planning efforts.
• The master plan utilizes realistic demand projections for the service areas to develop an array of solutions for each of the partner towns and the County as a whole.
• Resulting data can be used for analysis or to present to stakeholders, the public, or Board members.

Chatham County, North Carolina teamed with the Town of Goldston, the Town of Siler City, and the Town of Pittsboro to develop a comprehensive water and wastewater utility master plan to facilitate a regional coordinated effort that meets their projected water and wastewater needs in both the short- and long-term.

As opposed to a traditional report-style master plan, this evaluation was holistic in nature and was developed as an adaptable decision-making tool using an interactive digital dashboard. The dashboard was developed to communicate comparative cost- and system-capacity impacts of proposed alternatives, as well as facilitate adaptation of the master plan to future goals and planning efforts.

Chatham County is located in the Piedmont region of North Carolina just southwest of the large and rapidly growing cities of Raleigh, Durham, and Chapel Hill, commonly referred to as the Triangle. The Triangle hosts the Research Triangle Park (RTP), which is home to many large technology and pharmaceutical companies such as IBM, GlaxoSmithKline, and Cisco Systems. Northwest of Chatham County is the Triad, which includes Greensboro, High Point, and Winston-Salem. Chatham County is anticipating rapid growth as the surrounding areas continue to grow and more people look outside the cities for available land and affordable housing.

The County’s Comprehensive Plan outlines their strategic plan to manage residential growth pressure and stimulate economic growth while maintaining a rural atmosphere and character. A result of the 2017 Comprehensive Plan was the action item to develop a county-wide water/sewer master plan to identify key infrastructure upgrades, regional connections, and water supply solutions.

The master plan uses realistic demand projections for the service areas to develop an array of solutions for each of the Partners and the County as a whole. Opportunities for new or expanded treatment facilities, decentralized facilities, intra- and inter-county connections, distribution and collection system capacity improvements, and privately-owned facilities were considered, identified, assessed and incorporated into the master plan as appropriate and directed by the Partners.

The video above shows a brief overview of the digital dashboard.