DeKalb County Advisory Roundtable with Reginald Wells, Director of Watershed Management, DeKalb County

Join the Council for Quality Growth's DeKalb County Advisory Roundtable on November 5, 2026 at 8:30 AM.

Reginald Wells
Director of Watershed Management
DeKalb County

Reginald Wells is an executive level, solution-oriented civil engineer with over 25 years of combined service in both the public and private sector. He has served as a civil engineer on water resource program management teams, site design projects, and various transportation projects.

Reginald possesses a unique blend of heightened analytical, communication and interpersonal skills with demonstrated leadership and operational expertise. He has demonstrated success at providing the vision and leadership for high-performance construction and maintenance operations for large-scale water utilities with asset value up to $8 billion and $650 million in annual revenues. Reginald has proven to be an exceptional decision maker during stressful emergency situations with a sound track record of mitigating severe service interruptions and system failures.

In addition to being proficient at establishing operational excellence within culturally diverse environments and nontraditional business settings, he is also well versed at leading complicated strategic organizational change while optimizing operational staff and increasing service delivery.

As the director of Watershed Management for DeKalb County, Reginald serves as a member of the County’s CEO’s senior leadership team. He is responsible for the County’s water and wastewater operations producing potable water, treatment and disposal of wastewater including an estimated 5,000 miles of water distribution and sanitary sewer collection piping. The facilities managed under his purview includes the Scott Candler Water Filter Plant and associated water storage tanks and booster pump stations, the Pole Bridge Advanced Wastewater Treatment Plant, the Snapfinger Advanced Wastewater Treatment Plant and 67 lift stations. The Watershed Management Department has a budget of $300 million, a workforce of 700 employees providing services to a population of approximately 800,000 residents.

Prior to rejoining DeKalb Watershed in 2025, Reginald was previously with the City of Atlanta’s Department of Watershed Management for over 16 years in several leadership roles. He last served as Assistant Commissioner of Department of Watershed Management where he provided executive leadership for all operational divisions within the department. Responsible for oversight of the Department’s dedicated workforce of over 1,350 employees, a $675 million annual operating budget, a five-year capital improvement plan of $1.2 billion, including the Water Supply Program, the nearly $4 billion Clean Water Atlanta Consent Decree Program aimed at the elimination of sanitary sewer overflows, and overall compliance with two Federal Consent Decrees (CSO and SSO).

Reginald is a current member of the Georgia Association of Water Professionals, American Water Works Association, National Association of Clean Water Agencies and the American Public Works Association.