Follow #avlh2o for live updates from Xpress reporters throughout the all-day hearing, held by Rep. Tim Moffitt’s Metropolitan Sewerage/Water System Committee.
(Elected officials wait their turn to address the House Select Committee at the Western NC Ag Center Photo by Bill Rhodes)
With several forums held or about to be held, the topic du jour — what to do with our water system — local business owner Dwight Butner offers his thoughts on the issue:
At the risk of offending numerous people in and out of government who I deeply respect, some unvarnished candor and truth is in order.
In 1981, Buncombe County, the city of Asheville and individual water districts in the county came together and created the Asheville/Buncombe Water Authority. In 1995, Henderson County joined in, creating a historic regional group: Here’s the Regional Water Supply and Water Service Agreement adopted by Asheville, Buncombe and Henderson officials in 1995.
The more I wrote about drought this spring, the more it rained. I considered starting a second career as a contrarian rainmaker. I could lease my talents out to water-hungry towns, an editor suggested. Still, I wondered what I would write about. The rain gave me more time indoors, even as I fell behind in […]
Mere months before the many-headed Hydra that is the Regional Water Agreement is scheduled to expire, the central questions remain: Will Asheville and Buncombe County negotiate a settlement tying up all the loose ends? Will their lawyers wind up duking it out in court? Or will the General Assembly, like some legislative deus ex machina, […]
“What would be the ultimate cost of not having a regional approach?” — Nelda Holder, president,Asheville-Buncombe League of Women Voters Just get everything out on the table, and maybe everyone involved will feel obligated to address the stated problems. So says Gary Semlak, a former board member of the Regional Water Authority of Asheville, Buncombe […]
