About our Mission

This wiki exists to increase awareness of Wake County's streams, many of which are impaired, yet all of which are vital to both environmental and human health. Stream health is dependent upon lots of forests and healthy land filter the water in Wake's aquifer and in overland flow (storm runoff).

Wake Water Warriors, the result of a Climate Change and Society graduate program project (NCSU Marine, Earth, and Atmospheric Sciences/Barriers to Communication class), intends to bring awareness to the water cycle as it plays out in Wake County.

If streams and rivers were water dragons, as they have been depicted for centuries in Japan and other East Asian countries, then aquifers would be their lairs, climate change, erosion, and pollution, their enemies. Their allies are those creatures who seek to live in harmony with nature.

The water around Wake County have been of concern to the state for years; the USGS has produced reports on the state of Wake's Groundwater, which is high in nitrogen, and the entire Neuse River has required riparian buffers for its entire length to help filter pollutants and protect its banks from erosion. Many streams in the county are on the EPA's imperiled streams list and need mitigation to maintain healthy flow levels and ensure water quality, as required by the Clean Water Act.

By telling stories about our streams, we can relate to them and better appreciate the important roles they play in our quickly changing world. Understanding that they do not exist in isolation, but rather are the result of upstream forests, precipitation, groundwater (which provides baseflow, especially during droughts), and factors like how much impervious pavement fills their drainage basins.

It is hoped that other Water Warriors will adopt streams--or even add more--and in the process, learn about the water many meters beneath us, upstream and downstream of us, and flowing around us.

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