Greensboro's Strategic Edge: How Flexible Wastewater Rules Are Fueling Major Growth

Written by Marshall Yandle | Aug 26, 2025 5:37:33 PM

Pictured: Greensboro’s T.Z. Osborne Water Reclamation Facility, the backbone of the city's innovative Industrial Pretreatment Program.

When major manufacturers evaluate potential sites, one critical question often determines where they'll build: "What are your industrial discharge limits?" In most North Carolina cities, the answer is straightforward: rigid, across-the-board limits that apply to every company equally. But Greensboro takes a different approach, one that's helping land game-changing employers like Boom Supersonic and Toyota's new battery manufacturing plant.

Born from Necessity, Perfected by Strategy

Greensboro's innovative Industrial Pretreatment Program traces back to 1980, when the Governor's office called with an urgent request. A Major Company wanted to build their first U.S. manufacturing plant in Greensboro, but they had a problem: their processing would discharge one million gallons of silver-laden wastewater daily. At the time, nobody was thinking much about industrial wastewater management.

“It was out of necessity that we came up with the design.”
— Martie Groome, Former Laboratory and Industrial Waste Section Supervisor and developer of the program

Greensboro pioneered a solution that would work with the company to remove as much silver as possible while accommodating their needs.

Trading Capacity, Not Settling for Limits

While most municipalities set uniform concentration limits (telling every company they can discharge the same amount of each pollutant), Greensboro operates a pollutant trading system. Think of it as managing a pie: the City knows exactly how much of each contaminant the wastewater treatment system can handle overall, then strategically allocates that capacity among users.

"We ask the company what they need and look at it from a larger pollutant pie approach. For any contaminant, we can say this customer gets A% of that capacity, another customer gets B%, and so on, with C% remaining for future growth."
— Martie Groome

This concentration trading system, controlled by Greensboro's Water Reclamation Industrial Waste Section, covers 15 different pollutants. All unused capacities flow back into future economic development opportunities.

Strategic Choices for Maximum Impact

The program's flexibility doesn't mean accepting every company that applies. Greensboro makes strategic decisions about which projects merit precious treatment capacity. Recently a brewery wanted to locate in the city, bringing a potential beer garden and 50 new jobs. But the high BOD (Biochemical Oxygen Demand) waste from beer production, combined with relatively low job creation, and their reluctance to install pretreatment, didn't justify the capacity allocation. Instead, Greensboro works with major job creators, large and small. Companies employing hundreds of workers (like Boom Supersonic's aircraft manufacturing facility or Toyota's massive EV plant) chose Greensboro for their capacity trading arrangements.

Competitive Advantage in Site Selection

This strategic approach gives Greensboro a significant edge when manufacturers compare locations. While other cities must simply say "no" to companies whose discharge needs exceed uniform limits, Greensboro can work creatively with prospects.

The system accounts for three key factors:

Flow volume
Specific contaminants
Any pretreatment the company can implement

With modern technology achieving better removal rates (like 50% nickel removal in newer facilities), Greensboro's capacity becomes even more valuable.

Site selection consultants regularly ask about specific pollutant limits during their evaluation process. When they hear about Greensboro's trading system, many don't initially understand the advantage. But for manufacturers dealing with certain challenging contaminants, the flexibility can be the difference between building in North Carolina or looking elsewhere.

Leading the Way

Greensboro's innovative approach proved so effective that other major North Carolina cities—including Charlotte and Winston-Salem—now use similar systems. But as the pioneer in pollutant trading, Greensboro maintains superior capacity and experience in making these strategic accommodations work. The program operates in a constant state of flux, adapting to changing EPA, state, and federal regulations while maintaining competitive advantages for major employers. Some challenges, like PFAS contamination from airport firefighting foam, remain difficult to address. But for traditional industrial contaminants, Greensboro's system provides unmatched flexibility.

For manufacturers evaluating North Carolina locations, Greensboro's Industrial Pretreatment Program represents more than regulatory compliance. It's a strategic partnership.

Rather than facing rigid limits that could derail major investments, companies find a city willing to work creatively to accommodate their needs while maintaining environmental standards.

In economic development, flexibility often determines winners and losers. Greensboro's approach to industrial wastewater management proves that sometimes the best competitive advantage comes from saying "yes" when others have to say "no." This is especially true when that "yes" brings hundreds of high-quality jobs to the community.

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