Overview:
• People from Fayetteville to Wilmington spoke at a public hearing on interbasin transfer
• Interbasin transfer takes water from one river and discharges it in another
• Message to the Environmental Management Commission: Make the town put the water back after it uses it
Dozens of people from Fayetteville to Wilmington urged state environmental regulators on Thursday to reject a Wake County town’s request to pull water from the Cape Fear River without returning it.
About 200 attended a hearing hosted by the N.C. Division of Water Quality about an interbasin transfer request. Fuquay-Varina, a fast-growing Raleigh suburb, wants to pull up to 6.17 million gallons per day from the Cape Fear River to keep up with demand for drinking water. Once the water has been used, the town wants to discharge the treated wastewater from its sewage treatment plants into the nearby Neuse River basin instead of the Cape Fear basin.
That would leave the Cape Fear River with less water for human consumption, industrial needs, wildlife, and recreation in Bladen, Brunswick, Columbus, Cumberland, and New Hanover counties, critics told N.C. Environmental Management Commission member Kevin Tweedy, who led the hearing. The commission is considering whether to approve Fuquay-Varina’s request.
Most speakers said they have no problem with Fuquay-Varina taking water from the Cape Fear basin so long as it puts the water back when it’s done.
“Reject this proposal. Make them return the water. You can save our future,” said Whitaker Grannis, chair of Fayetteville’s stormwater advisory board.
“I’m empathetic to the needs of Fuquay-Varina and proud of our state’s growth,” said Cumberland County Commissioner Pavan Patel. “But the use of the Cape Fear’s water must be sustainable. And that means the water must be returned to the basin it’s taken from. Without that, every community downstream, including ours here in Cumberland, will face higher costs, reduced capacity and further risk to public health.”
Cumberland County needs water to foster industrial development, said Robert Van Geons, the CEO of the Fayetteville Cumberland County Economic Development Corp., which tries to attract businesses to the area.
“Currently, we are in active competition for projects representing more than $40 billion of potential investment and more than 15,000 jobs,” he said. “Removing the requested amount of water from the Cape Fear unfairly jeopardizes our ability to compete for these projects and will dramatically limit future opportunities.”
The Cape Fear River is already shallow in places, some speakers said.
“Even at a normal time with normal water flow, you can almost walk across the river without getting your feet wet,” Jake Smalley of Cumberland County said.
The water is about 8.5 feet deep at Campbellton Landing in Fayetteville, said John White of Deep Creek Outfitters.
Communities in the Wilmington area are united in opposition to the interbasin transfer, said Matt Nichols, a lawyer for the Lower Cape Fear Water and Sewer Authority. The utility takes water from the Cape Fear River to serve 550,000 customers in Bladen, Brunswick, Columbus, New Hanover, and Pender counties, he said.
Nichols was one of several people from the Wilmington area who spoke during the hearing. Some said they were unhappy that no public hearings on the issue have been scheduled there. Fayetteville is the closest location of three planned hearings, and is about an hour and 45 minute drive from Wilmington.
Near the end of Thursday’s meeting, the only comments offered in favor of Fuquay-Varina’s request came from Jose Cardona of Fayetteville. He frequently speaks publicly on civic matters in Fayetteville.
“So I am the only one that’s going to speak for the people of Fuquay-Varina?” he said.
Cardona, who held up two empty water bottles, said he has drunk bottled water only for the past 25 years because he doesn’t trust the tap water.
“We are denying the people upriver because they make more money?” he said, referencing some comments that people in Fuquay-Varina have a median household income of more than $111,000, vs. just under $59,000 in Fayetteville.
The next hearings on this topic are scheduled for December 9 in Raleigh and December 11 in Pittsboro.
Senior reporter Paul Woolverton can be reached at pwoolverton@cityviewnc.com.
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