As part of an ongoing effort to reimagine Cary’s approach to stormwater, staff launched a pilot to incentivize homeowners and businesses in the Walnut Creek Watershed to slow rainwater down on their properties. This pilot, funded through a private foundation grant called the Southeast Sustainable Communities Fund, assists property owners in installing landscape features like raingardens, cisterns and permeable pavers. 

The first project, a 1,500-gallon cistern, was completed in June and holds the water from the residential rooftop after a rainstorm, storing it for watering gardens. Storing the rainwater during rainy days and using it for irrigation during drier days allows the homeowner to use the rainwater beneficially and for the water to slowly infiltrate and soak into the ground. This project helps reduce runoff and flooding beyond property lines and within the local watershed. Staff is working to finalize six other contracts to install additional projects through this pilot.

Moved by the deaths of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, two Cary High School seniors partnered with Cary police to stage an art event in the Downtown Cary Park on June 2. The two-hour event, called “Decorate the Fountain,” provided a safe space for local students and their families to express their feelings about recent events and to share positive messages of hope and unity. The event also spawned healthy conversations about improving police-community relations nationwide.

Cary High School seniors Ella Green and Michael Shorb, the event’s organizers, came up with the idea after assisting with clean-up efforts following the downtown demonstrations in Raleigh on May 30. Ella and Michael approached Cary Police Department staff with the idea to decorate around the downtown fountain with chalk messages of love and support for people of color in the community. The Police Department arranged for a drone to fly over the Downtown Park in order to capture the chalk images, which the participants agreed would be temporary. The event organizers and participants removed their artwork upon the event’s conclusion.

In keeping with a commitment to maintain our utility infrastructure, Cary completed rehabilitation of the Walnut Creek Outfall in June. This sewer line, constructed around 1963, serves a large portion of downtown Cary, as well as Cary High School, Cary Towne Center, the future Fenton development and a significant number of other businesses and residential properties. About 2.5 miles of sewer line was cleaned, inspected and rehabilitated, extending its service life by 50 or more years. In addition, about 50 manholes were repaired or rehabilitated. 

Rehabilitation of the Walnut Creek Outfall represents the second phase of the FY 2018 Sewer Interceptor Rehabilitation Project. This $8.6 million project began with rehabilitation of the Harrison Oaks Interceptor, which conveys sewer flows from SAS, Embassy Suites, Bass Pro Shops and several other commercial properties. Work is now underway on the third and final phase of this project – rehabilitation of the Upper Swift Creek Interceptor from Southwest Maynard Road to Southwest Cary Parkway.

On March 20, Fire Station No. 9 was opened for operation. The station’s 1,400-square-foot, multi-purpose room was designed with the flexibility and functionality to serve as Cary’s long-desired Emergency Operations Center. On June 6, Cary put it to use when the EOC’s police, fire, operations and planning sections held their inaugural EOC activation at station 9 for scheduled peaceful gatherings held in response to nationwide social injustice protests. The new facility allowed EOC staff to make decisions to keep protestors, citizens, motorists and officers safe during the event. The ability to see and control traffic cameras, view live stream internet feeds with real-time intelligence, and stream drone footage provided a comprehensive picture of what was happening. Staff was able to monitor how the crowd was moving, anticipate potential conflicts and concerns, and reposition officers ahead of the crowd allowing unprecedented control of the situation. Future use of the EOC could include natural disasters or festivals like Lazy Daze or Fourth of July celebrations.

Sections of the Cary community are safer to travel through during rainstorms with the completion of three storm drainage improvement projects this quarter. Deteriorating stormwater infrastructure caused two sinkholes within the right-of-way of Highland Trail in the Scottish Hills neighborhood. These sinkholes were addressed by replacing pipes and drains with newer, concrete systems. In the nearby Kildaire Farms subdivision, a segment of aging culverts under Two Creeks Road that frequently clogged and caused street and residential crawlspace flooding was also replaced. On Bayoak Drive in the Dutchess Village subdivision, repairs were made to an existing culvert, a parallel culvert was added, and additional drains were installed. With this new infrastructure, these stormwater drainage systems can better handle rainfall volumes and mitigate the potential for flooding at previously impacted residential properties. In addition to addressing aging infrastructure, Cary’s adaptive approach to managing stormwater builds cooperation, equity and goodwill with citizens.

Each year, as part of our Asset Management Program, Cary undertakes a water main replacement project. Using risk-based prioritization, the most susceptible water mains in our system are identified and replaced with new pipes. This proactive approach keeps our water system strong, safe and reliable. As a result, Cary consistently maintains a water main break rate well below the national average for utilities each year. This of course leads to fewer service disruptions and a more efficient use of funding.

Coinciding with the close of FY 2020, construction of the 2019 Water Main Replacement Project is now complete. This project took place throughout four areas of central Cary, including Madison Avenue/Crest Road in the Oakwood Heights neighborhood, part of the Greenwood Forest neighborhood, part of the Walnut Hills neighborhood, and nearly all of South Walker Street and Byrum Street. This year’s work resulted in some of Cary’s highest replacement totals to date with more than 15,000 feet of water main replacement coupled with the installation of more than 200 new water service lines and meters, which will serve hundreds of Cary residents for decades to come.

Cary’s 2019 Consumer Confidence Report can now be found online. The annual water quality report provides results of more than 50,000 tests conducted last year showing that, once again, Cary’s water meets or exceeds all federal standards. It features an article on emerging contaminants and highlights how Cary continues to make its system more resilient and is prepared to serve its community’s water needs well into the future. Cary also received the 2019 Large Water System of the Year and Overall Water System of the Year awards by the North Carolina section of the American Water Works Association, as well as the Partnership for Safe Water Director’s Award for the 16th year in a row. 

For the past year, a multi-departmental team has been hard at work on a new stormwater alert system as part of our Smart and Connected Community, Adaptive Stormwater and Microsoft Smart City Blocks Grant programs. That work culminated with the announcement of a strategic partnership between Microsoft and SAS, bringing tighter integration with each company’s core solutions to better facilitate the objectives of the grant. 

The Smart City Blocks Grant program provides funding and resources for innovative smart city projects in small- and medium-sized communities. These projects must be successfully deployed in a small city block or pilot area, quickly scaled across the entire city, and have the capability to be easily replicated in other communities. The objectives of Cary’s Smart and Connected Community and Adaptive Stormwater programs as well as the deployment of water level sensors and rain gauges in the downtown area made it a natural fit for this grant. 

Since fall 2019, representatives from IT, Stormwater, PRCR, Public Works and the Manager’s Office have collaborated with various vendors to create our Smart and Connected IoT Architecture. To date, stormwater sensors and gauges have been deployed within Walnut Creek, at Cary Arts Center and WakeMed Soccer Park. These devices capture real-time data, and staff are working on an ESRI dashboard to visualize the data, which will increase situational awareness and provide a mechanism to share the data with regional partners like N.C. Emergency Management. The data is also being sent to Salesforce, creating automated Chatter posts about rising water levels and intense rain events, allowing staff to generate work orders more efficiently. Lastly, this data is being stored in a long-term Microsoft Azure database, which SAS uses to build water flow and flood prediction models with their Visual Analytics product. These solutions are being tested, adjusted and will be put into production within the next few months to meet the grant’s requirements.

As many communities discontinued certain solid waste services, particularly yard waste collection, in response to the pandemic, Cary took measures to continue these services despite heavier than normal volumes. Beginning in early April, Cary began a “one person per vehicle” operation, and employees began wearing masks. Staff heard from citizens often how appreciative they were of Cary’s crews and services.  

Simple Recycling notified Cary that, due to COVID-19, they have materially changed their business and are not able to countersign the pending contract, and therefore, they will not be launching a curbside textile recycling program in Cary. Staff is disappointed by this decision, and over the coming months, Cary’s Interdepartmental Recycling Team and Public Works will explore other options.