In one of his first acts in the new legislative session, state Sen. Tom Apodaca, of Hendersonville, introduced a bill on Jan. 30 that would create and fund a new branch of the State Crime Laboratory in Western North Carolina.

Meanwhile, Joseph John, director of the state lab, has delivered a preliminary plan for the facility to the N.C. General Assembly.

The new lab would be located on the campus of the state-run Western Justice Academy in Edneyville, in Henderson County, a training facility. It would expand on the operations of the State Bureau of Investigation’s current lab in Asheville, which handles several kinds of forensics but doesn’t conduct DNA analysis or the toxicology work necessary for determining levels of intoxication from blood samples.