Charlotte is preparing to bring online a major new wastewater treatment facility, and instead of leaving the approach to it looking purely industrial, city leaders have turned the walkway leading up to the plant into a public art destination. Murals depicting plants and animals native to the region now line the pathway, transforming what could have been a plain access route into something residents are encouraged to stop and explore.
The facility at the center of it all is the Stowe wastewater treatment plant, which, as reported by WCNC, is expected to open in the coming weeks and serve Charlotte along with several communities in Gaston County. Per the project's own site, stoweregionalwrrf.com, the facility will treat wastewater for western Mecklenburg County and the cities of Belmont and Mount Holly in Gaston County. City officials say the plant will play a key role in protecting water resources as the region grows, and WCNC reports the facility is designed to protect and preserve those resources for Charlotte and neighboring communities for decades to come.
Why the City Chose Murals Over a Plain Fence Line
City leaders envisioned the pathway as more than just an access point to critical infrastructure, according to WCNC's reporting. Rather than let residents walk past a utilitarian corridor, Charlotte is using public art to help people connect with the project and its mission, dividing the walkway into sections that invite visitors to stop, explore and learn about the facility's role in the region's water future.
That mission lines up with the broader case Charlotte Water makes for the Stowe project. The project consolidates two existing plants into one facility, reduces the distance wastewater must travel for treatment, and is meant to operate with greater energy efficiency, according to stoweregionalwrrf.com. The same site notes the project also includes what it calls a Community Benefit Project, intended to serve as an amenity for neighbors — language that helps explain why a mural-lined walkway fits into the plant's design rather than being an afterthought.
An Artist Known for Telling Stories Through Public Walls
The murals were created by artist Gabriel Eng-Goetz, who told WCNC the project gave him a chance to tell a story about the region's natural resources. He said he wanted to highlight animals and plants found in the Catawba River region, drawing inspiration from the ecosystems surrounding the river itself. Eng-Goetz added that public art can engage people with subjects they might otherwise overlook — a philosophy that tracks with his earlier work elsewhere in North Carolina.
Eng-Goetz has built a reputation for murals that weave natural imagery into public spaces. In 2019, he painted a mural at American Underground in which, as Walter Magazine described it, “a menagerie of indigo frogs, birds, fish and insects frolic in flowing river currents.” In September 2022, he completed a mural in Raleigh at the corner of Hillsborough and West Streets celebrating the history and transformation of Dix Park, according to the same magazine's profile of his work.
Growth Pressures Behind the New Plant
The push for more treatment capacity comes as the Charlotte region continues to add residents. Stoweregionalwrrf.com states plainly that as more people move to the area, the region will need to treat more wastewater — a dynamic driving the scale of the Stowe project. Engineering News-Record has described Charlotte Water as constructing a $650-million advanced wastewater treatment facility meant to serve a fast-growing region of nearly 3 million people, though other supplied figures for the project's cost conflict with that number and could not be independently reconciled here.
Timelines for the plant's completion have likewise varied across sources. Engineering News-Record has reported the facility will be able to treat 15 million gallons of wastewater per day when it opens in 2027, with room to expand to 25 million gallons daily, while a Charlotte Water blog post previously indicated the facility was on track to be fully operational in 2026. WCNC's reporting on the mural project describes the Stowe facility as expected to open in the coming weeks, serving Charlotte and Gaston County communities once it does.
For now, the most visible sign of progress may be the artwork itself. As the plant nears its opening, the painted frogs, birds and river plants along the pathway are meant to do more than decorate a construction site — they're designed, per WCNC, to help residents see the facility as part of the region's natural landscape rather than apart from it.
