WK Dickson’s Award Winning Study Shows the Viability of Rainwater Harvesting in a Small NC Town

Charlotte, NC, November 13, 2013 --(PR.com)-- WK Dickson & Co., Inc. has received an Engineering Excellence Award from the American Council of Engineering Companies of North Carolina for their work on the innovative Rainwater Harvesting project in Kernersville, North Carolina.

Kernersville is a picturesque small town in the Appalachian foothills. In the heart of downtown is a Town Hall complex - a magnet for residents with its town library, farmer’s market and site of a variety of weekend festivals. But despite its charming setting even Kernersville has been caught up with prevailing regulatory requirements for stormwater pollution cleanup.

Town leadership reached out to WK Dickson to help them develop innovative rainwater harvesting and reuse concepts that included outside-the-box thinking from NC State University senior design students. Working in partnership with the Town of Kernersville, WK Dickson developed the project scope, executed the project study, applied for and received grant funding to partially offset project costs, conceived the innovative team structure with involvement of university seniors, conducted the study including coordination with the Town, non-profit Ciener Botanical Garden and NCSU Senior Design Capstone Study teams, developed recommendations, provided concept designs for several reuse options, and presented them to the Town for design of a rainwater harvesting system from a nearby stormwater pond to Ciener Botanical Gardens for use in irrigation.

The Town is now moving to design and construction of this unique educational showcase project just in time to offer an innovative solution to meeting the new High Rock Lake Nutrient Management Rules. The engineering students have now graduated with a more in-depth understanding of sustainability and reuse as well as exposure to the desirability of consulting and public works as career options. And both the Town and Ciener Botanical Gardens are working closely together on a project in which the public visiting the Gardens and residents, via public relations outreach, can learn of the benefits of rainwater reuse for irrigation, a useful take-home idea with benefits to the Town, the environment, and the public.

WK Dickson is an Engineering News Record Top 500, multi-disciplined consulting firm specializing in total community infrastructure solutions including: Environmental and Water Resources Engineering; Airport Planning & Design; Community Planning and Development; and Geospatial Technology. Their goal is to help communities improve the lives of its citizens through sound, ecologically responsible design principals. The firm has been headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina since its founding in 1929. It has grown to operate seven regional offices strategically located throughout the Southeastern United States.