Author: Elise Benware
A trio of DWR employees have played a critical role in helping to protect and restore the Walnut Creek watershed, the 46-square-mile area that includes waters flowing through parts of Cary, Raleigh, including through NC State University, and other areas in Wake County. Their work has recently garnered local and national recognition.
DWR employees working on the Walnut Creek Watershed Action Team received a letter of recognition from U.S. Rep. Deborah Ross, D-2nd, on May 15. This recognition was to congratulate the team on winning the 2024 Raleigh Environmental Stewardship Award on April 19 from the City of Raleigh’s Environmental Awards.
In the letter, Ross writes: “This award not only recognizes your devotion to the improvement of the Walnut Creek Watershed’s environmental, economic and social conditions, but also your commitment to community outreach and education to enact change within our community.”
The Walnut Creek Watershed Action Team first met in December 2017. The meeting included representatives from DWR, NC State University, the City of Raleigh, the Town of Cary and Wake County.
Amin Davis, state and local projects manager for the DWR Water Resources Development Grant program, and Cam McNutt, environmental program consultant for DWR, led the first meeting of the Walnut Creek Action Team. Since then, Davis and McNutt, along with Lauren Daniel, Water Education Programs Coordinator for DWR, continue to lead and update stakeholders.
“The main goal of the action team was for different entities and stakeholders in the watershed to be aware of what each other is doing, to meet each other, and hopefully synergistic partnerships would develop,” Davis said.
Today, the action team includes a variety of stakeholders such as federal and state agencies, local governments, academic institutions, non-profit organizations, private firms, faith-based organizations and individuals living in the Walnut Creek watershed community. Members of the action team collaborate to develop and implement watershed projects for Walnut Creek, update Walnut Creek’s Watershed Action Plan, plan outreach events and measure the team’s progress.
“Until the team came together, many organizations worked in their own silo,” Daniel says. “Now, all the stakeholders know what’s going on and everyone’s working together to see which areas in the watershed need the most support.”
The Walnut Creek watershed is just one within the state where DWR staff are helping to lead and coordinate water quality response efforts for impaired waterways.
Challenges and solutions for Walnut Creek
The Walnut Creek Watershed is a sub-watershed of the Neuse River Basin. The headwaters are located in Cary and flows into South Raleigh. The watershed contains flood-sensitive communities, including Rochester Heights, a neighborhood listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The neighborhood was built for Black residents during segregation. Some residents in Rochester Heights and other neighborhoods continue to experience severe flooding.
The watershed also faces significant development pressures and water quality issues, including poor benthic and fish communities, and Polychlorinated Biphenyl (PCB) contamination. Because of these issues, the watershed was listed on North Carolina’s 303d list of impaired waters in 2022, and it’s on the 2024 draft list of impaired waters.
For waterbodies listed as impaired, the state or tribal government that the waterbody is in must develop a restoration plan. In North Carolina, these plans are known as Watershed Action Plans, or WAPs, which are tools used to plan, track and measure the progress of watershed improvement projects.
For Walnut Creek, the WAP is unique due to its digital format as a story map. The story map, designed by McNutt at DWR, is an interactive webpage map detailing the WAP’s goals, achievements and plans.
Because the story map is regularly updated, it acts as a living document for the WAP and serves as the restoration plan requirement for the EPA.
“The map benefits both local and state environmental professionals as well as community members and advocates because it shares where work is being done, where there are needs for projects, and even where there is capacity for future projects,” Daniel says.
As a result of its success, employees at the DWR use the story map format as a model for other WAPs in North Carolina. “With the new form of the story map, updates to the WAP can be rolled out quickly rather than sit on a shelf in binders collecting dust,” says McNutt.
Watershed accomplishments
While the action team continues to improve and add new projects, the group has many accomplishments already.
These accomplishments include the increased use of the story map format in other counties and states, efforts to increase public involvement and awareness, collaboration with stakeholders and the completion of flood studies and local stormwater management programs.
"Involving community residents and partners is critical to the success of meeting the environmental goals for this historically impaired waterway and its tributaries,” Daniel said.
Because of its accomplishments in the Walnut Creek watershed, the action team has received both state and federal recognitions.
Each member and group in the action team received a letter from Ross recognizing their actions and accomplishments, specifically recognizing the Raleigh Environmental Stewardship Award. Davis and McNutt agree that this recognition, as well as the award, stem from the watershed’s designation as an Urban Waters Partnership.
In March 2023, Walnut Creek Watershed was designated as the 21st Urban Waters Federal Partnership. The Urban Waters Federal Partnership includes 15 federal agencies that can supply funding for watersheds and support the goal of reconnecting people with their waterbodies in underserved communities.
The EPA and other partners announced the partnership at an event in Raleigh last year, coinciding with the launch of a federal environmental justice campaign.
To continue their successful work, the action team relies on public participation to add information to the WAP story map and help identify new projects for the watershed. DWR staff are currently updating the story map to be more accessible and user-friendly for the public in the hopes of engaging more community members and spreading awareness of the action team’s needs.
DWR employees like Davis are proud of the action team’s accomplishments and eager to see what’s next for the team.
“The efforts of the WAT have led to enhanced partnerships and collaborations with organizations and individuals within the watershed,” Davis says. “The WAT is excited about being designated as an Urban Watershed location and hopes the collaborations that formed will bring benefits to the watershed’s communities.”