The City of Hickory’s Water Treatment Facility is a regional water supply facility, providing potable drinking water to three counties and managing three purchased water systems extending from Icard to Claremont and from northern Alexander County to the Town of Catawba and Sherrills Ford. The facility also supplies water to the towns of Maiden and Long View. The plant is a conventional surface water treatment facility, drawing water from the Catawba River. The Catawba River Basin originates from springs in the tallest mountains of the Appalachian Mountain chain and flows east past Hickory. This provides us with a quality water source, relatively free from contamination. Duke Power operates two hydroelectric dams, Rhodhiss upstream and Oxford downstream from the plant. These two dams create a deep-water reservoir for our intake and help manage the water flow to reduce contamination from water runoff. The facility employs eleven State Certified Operators, one State Certified Laboratory Chemist, and one Water Quality Technician. The facility has a rated capacity of 32 million gallons of water per day and operates 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Pretreatment Programs were established to control the discharges of industrial users into collection systems. The Environmental Protection Agency first issued pretreatment regulations in 1978. The State of North Carolina identified the need for establishing pretreatment programs in 1980. The City of Hickory’s Pretreatment Program is an EPA federally-mandated program under the administration of the State of North Carolina PERCS Unit with the City of Hickory as the Control Authority. The Hickory Regional Laboratory is a North Carolina state certified laboratory which conducts laboratory analyses for NPDES permits, SIU’s, & other analyses as needed for plants, industrial users, or the collection system.

The Water Distribution Division is responsible for providing quality water service to all new and existing water customers as it relates to maintenance and construction. Services provided by this division include installation of water and sewer taps for new customers; repair of water leaks and broken water mains; maintenance and repair of sewer lines; installation, testing, and repair of water meters; installation of water and sewer mains; fire hydrant maintenance and repair; restoration of landscape and asphalt patching after utility construction; 24-hr emergency service; monitoring of chlorine levels throughout the water distribution system; locating water and sewer lines through NC811; and more. The City provides water and sewer location services for all lines maintained by the City. Anyone performing any excavation work is required to notify the utility owners in the area of the proposed excavation area, 72 hours prior to beginning, by calling North Carolina 811 at (800) 632-4949 or 811. The City does not locate any private lines or lines maintained by other utilities or lines on private property, except lines that the City maintains inside easements.

The Northeast Wastewater Treatment Facility is located at 310 Cloninger Mill Road, Hickory, NC. It is an advanced secondary treatment process that utilizes Carrousel Oxidation Ditch technology that's capable of removing BOD, nitrogen, and phosphorous. The plant is designed to treat 6 MGD (million gallons per day) of municipal and industrial wastewater flows from served locations in Northern Hickory and Southern Alexander County. The facility is staffed with State Certified Operators 24 hours a day, 7 days per week. 

The Henry Fork Wastewater Treatment Facility is located at 4014 River Road, Hickory, NC. The Henry Fork Facility serves numerous entities including Hickory, Longview, Brookford, and parts of Burke County. The facility is staffed 24 hours a day, 7 days a week by State Certified Operators. The plant is a 9 million gallon per day (MGD) Biological Nutrient Removal Facility. It uses an activated sludge process that treats wastewater for the traditional constituents while giving the city the ability to treat for nitrogen and phosphorus as well.

The Hickory-Catawba Wastewater Treatment Facility is located at 104 6th Avenue NE, Catawba, NC. It is an advanced secondary treatment process that utilizes Oxidation Ditch technology that's capable of removing BOD, nitrogen, and phosphorous. The plant is designed to treat 1.5 MGD (million gallons per day) of municipal and industrial wastewater flows from locations in the Town of Catawba and Southeastern Catawba County.

The City of Hickory Collection System operates under a permit issued November 30, 2003, to the City by the Division of Water Quality for the operation and maintenance of the wastewater collection system. This permit requires the City to follow certain rules and guidelines for right-of-way clearing, sewer line cleaning, pump station checking, and record keeping. The City reports to and is inspected by the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality (NC DEQ). All reportable sewer releases are reported to the NC DEQ.

The Sludge Compost Facility is operated under contract with Veolia Water North America for the Sludge Consortium, of which Hickory is the lead agent. This facility is responsible for accepting biosolids from consortium participants and producing Class "A" residual compost.