Lagoon systems: wastewater treatment plants in North Carolina
43 plants · 51% of the state · 90 MGD reported by 19 plants
Klarifi identifies 43 publicly owned wastewater treatment plants with lagoon systems in North Carolina, 51% of the 85 plants in the state (90 MGD reported by 19 plants). The largest is Neuse River Resource Recovery Facility in Raleigh at 47.06 MGD.
Lagoon systems treat wastewater in large earthen ponds over weeks of retention time, with or without mechanical aeration. They serve thousands of small towns because they are cheap to run, but they struggle with ammonia and nutrient limits, fill with sludge over decades and are the plants most often converted or upgraded when a permit is renewed.
The largest lagoons in North Carolina
| # | Facility | City | Avg flow (MGD) | NPDES permit | Expires | Violations (3y) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Neuse River Resource Recovery Facility | Raleigh | 47.06 | NC0029033 | Feb 2025 | 1 |
| 2 | Town Of Cary - North Cary WWTP | Cary | 5.91 | NC0048879 | Feb 2028 | 0 |
| 3 | Goldsboro WRF | Goldsboro | 5.69 | NC0023949 | Jan 2029 | 3 |
| 4 | Town Of Cary - South Cary WWTP | Apex | 5.1 | NC0065102 | Apr 2028 | 0 |
| 5 | New Bern Waste Water Treatment Plant | New Bern | 4.91 | NC0025348 | Jun 2027 | 0 |
| 6 | Triangle WWTP | Durham | 4.35 | NC0026051 | Apr 2027 | 3 |
| 7 | Johnnie Mosley Regional WRF | Kinston | 3.46 | NC0024236 | Jan 2029 | 32 |
| 8 | City Of High Point | Thomasville | 3.05 | NC0024228 | Feb 2026 | 0 |
| 9 | Siler City WWTP | Siler City | 2.1 | NC0026441 | May 2027 | 21 |
| 10 | Contentnea Metropolitan Sewerage District | Grifton | 1.44 | NC0032077 | Nov 2025 | 0 |
| 11 | Sgwasa WWTP | Butner | 1.36 | NC0026824 | Oct 2030 | 0 |
| 12 | Tarboro WWTP | Tarboro | 1.35 | NC0020605 | Sep 2029 | 0 |
| 13 | Yadkin River Water Treatment Plant | Unionville | 1.25 | NC0089893 | Jun 2025 | 0 |
| 14 | Sam'S Branch WRF | Clayton | 1.23 | NC0025453 | Mar 2030 | 4 |
| 15 | Oxford WWTP | Oxford | 0.99 | NC0025054 | Sep 2030 | 2 |
| 16 | Hoke County WWTP | Raeford | 0.55 | NC0089176 | Oct 2024 | 16 |
| 17 | Eagle Road WWTP | Cramerton | 0.53 | NC0006033 | Jan 2027 | 0 |
| 18 | Maury Sanitary Land District WWTP | Maury | 0.14 | NC0061492 | May 2028 | 25 |
| 19 | Hookerton WWTP | Hookerton | 0.00017 | NC0025712 | May 2028 | 3 |
| 20 | Anson County Regional WWTP | Wadesboro | — | NC0041408 | Feb 2029 | 8 |
| 21 | Apex Water Reclamation Facility | Apex | — | NC0064050 | Apr 2026 | 2 |
| 22 | Aurora WWTP | Aurora | — | NC0021521 | Feb 2030 | 205 |
| 23 | Beulaville WWTP | Beulaville | — | NC0026018 | Jan 2027 | 2 |
| 24 | Biscoe WWTP | Biscoe | — | NC0021504 | Jun 2026 | 3 |
| 25 | Bunn WWTP | Bunn | — | NC0042269 | Sep 2029 | 0 |
Contacts and project signals for every plant on this list
Klarifi adds verified decision-maker contacts, permit limits, discharge monitoring data and the capital projects planned in each city, filterable by technology, size and compliance record.
Other technologies in North Carolina
Lagoon systems in other states
Lagoon systems in North Carolina: questions
Sources and methodology
Flow, permit and violation figures come from the EPA's ICIS-NPDES discharge monitoring records. Population served comes from the Clean Watersheds Needs Survey 2022. Treatment structures are identified by Klarifi's review of aerial imagery, and capital improvement projects are extracted from published municipal budget documents. Violations are counted over the last three years of monitoring reports.
Data refreshed September 11, 2026.