Responsible Water Growth
Protecting Our Water Supply as Our Region Grows
Water for Today. Water for Tomorrow.
Charlotte Water works every day to provide safe, reliable, and affordable water services to our community. As our region continues to grow, protecting that service means planning carefully for new development, including projects that may require significant amounts of water.
Our commitment is clear: Growth should never compromise our ability to provide a resilient, reliable, and affordable water supply for the families and businesses we serve.
We plan for the future, evaluate the water needs of new development, promote responsible water use, and work to ensure that growth does not place an unfair burden on existing customers.
Our Promise to the Community
Water is essential to our daily lives, our economy, and the future of our region.
Charlotte Water manages a complex system of infrastructure that must serve the needs of our community today while preparing for the needs of tomorrow. That responsibility guides how we approach new development, particularly projects that require significant amounts of water.
Large developments such as data centers, manufacturing operations, and advanced technology facilities can bring jobs, investment, and innovation to our region. They can also create significant demands on water and wastewater infrastructure.
Charlotte Water works to ensure those demands are carefully evaluated and responsibly managed.
Our priority is protecting our customers and our shared water resources while supporting responsible growth.
What Does This Mean for Customers?
As our region grows, Charlotte Water is focused on three things:
Protecting your water service
New development must not compromise our ability to provide reliable water service to existing customers.
Protecting affordability
Development will pay for all associated infrastructure upgrades.
Protecting our future water supply
We plan decades into the future and encourage conservation, efficiency, reuse, and other strategies that help make the most of our available water resources.
How Charlotte Water Fits Into the Development Process
Charlotte Water does not decide where a development can be built or whether a particular land use should be approved.
Development is a collaborative process involving several local agencies and partners. City and jurisdictional leadership, along with planning and zoning agencies, guide land use decisions and the broader vision for how our communities grow.
Charlotte Water’s role comes into greater focus during the technical review and permitting process.
When a proposed development reaches Charlotte Water for review, our teams evaluate factors such as:
• Expected water demand
• Wastewater capacity
• Existing infrastructure
• Infrastructure improvements that may be needed
• Potential impacts on the broader utility system
• Opportunities to reduce water use and demand
For projects with significant water needs, Charlotte Water takes a particularly close look at how those demands can be responsibly accommodated without compromising service to existing customers or our ability to serve the community in the future.
How We Manage Projects With Significant Water Needs
We Promote Water Efficiency
Using less water is often one of the most effective ways to reduce the impact of a large development.
Charlotte Water works with planning agencies, developers, and project teams to explore strategies that can reduce demand on our drinking water system.
Depending on the project, these strategies may include:
• Advanced cooling systems
• Rainwater harvesting
• Reclaimed water
• Water reuse
• More efficient equipment and processes
• Strategies that reduce demand during periods of highest water use
The right solution may vary from project to project, but the goal remains the same: use water as efficiently and responsibly as possible.
We Apply Consistent Standards
Charlotte Water applies development regulations and technical requirements consistently across projects.
These requirements help ensure new development meets appropriate infrastructure standards and incorporates responsible water management practices.
As technology and industry practices evolve, Charlotte Water will continue evaluating opportunities to strengthen conservation and efficiency throughout the development process.
We Protect Ratepayers
Growth can require new pipes, pumps, treatment capacity, and other infrastructure.
Charlotte Water works to ensure that developments creating significant new infrastructure needs are responsible for the costs associated with serving their projects.
Our goal is to prevent those costs from being unfairly shifted to existing residents and businesses.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why is Charlotte Water focused on large water users?
Some developments require significantly more water than a typical business or residential development. Data centers, certain manufacturing facilities, and other large operations may have substantial water needs depending on their design and operations.
Because of their potential impact on water and wastewater systems, Charlotte Water evaluates these projects carefully and plans for both their immediate and long term needs.
Does Charlotte Water approve data centers or other developments?
Charlotte Water does not make land use or rezoning decisions.
Those decisions are made through the appropriate jurisdictional planning, zoning, and governing processes.
Charlotte Water provides technical expertise related to water and wastewater services. When projects reach the appropriate stage of review, we evaluate infrastructure capacity, anticipated demand, potential system impacts, and improvements that may be necessary to provide service.
Can a large development affect my water service?
Protecting reliable service for existing customers is a fundamental part of Charlotte Water’s planning and review process.
Before significant new demands are added to the system, Charlotte Water evaluates available capacity and identifies infrastructure needs. Our responsibility is to manage the system so growth does not compromise reliable service for the customers who depend on us today.
Will residents have to pay for infrastructure needed by large water users?
Charlotte Water works to ensure that developments with significant water needs are responsible for the infrastructure required to serve their projects.
Protecting existing customers from unfair cost impacts is an important part of how we approach growth and infrastructure planning.
Does Charlotte Water require large users to conserve water?
Charlotte Water promotes water efficiency and responsible water management for developments with significant water demands.
Depending on the project, that can include evaluating opportunities for reclaimed water, rainwater harvesting, water reuse, efficient cooling systems, efficient equipment, and strategies that reduce demand during periods when the water system is experiencing its highest use.
What is Charlotte Water doing to prepare for future growth?
Water planning happens years and decades in advance.
Charlotte Water continually evaluates population growth, economic development, water demand, wastewater needs, infrastructure capacity, conservation opportunities, and future system investments.
That planning helps us identify what our community will need before those needs arrive.
Planning for Generations to Come
Charlotte is growing, and our water system must be ready to grow responsibly with it.
That means looking beyond the needs of any single project. Every decision must consider the health of the entire water system, the customers who depend on it today, and the generations who will depend on it tomorrow.
Charlotte Water will continue to plan carefully, communicate openly, encourage responsible water use, and advocate for investments that strengthen our system.
Our water supply is a shared resource. Protecting it will remain at the heart of every decision we make.