With Polk County seeking the right to build a treatment plant that would withdraw up to 8 million gallons of water daily from Lake Adger, Polk and Henderson county commissioners held a joint meeting this week to discuss long-term water needs for both counties, as reported by the Times-News of Hendersonville.
Polk County has asked the state to designate the Lake Adger’s 50,000 acres of watershed as Watershed III for protection, but a majority of the acreage is in Henderson County, where commissioners prefer a Watershed IV classification that would only protect the area in Polk County. Discussions concerning the proposal, which is part of a 50-year plan for Polk County that would include a new treatment plant with a two-million-plus gallon-per-day capacity, involved the potential for developing a cooperation plan to help Henderson County with its own increasing water-supply needs in the southern end of the county.
Henderson County was formerly a member of a Regional Water Authority in partnership with Asheville and Buncombe County. The Water Authority was disbanded in 2005 at the behest and vote of the Asheville City Council. (For an overview of Asheville’s water history, see “Like Water for Asheville” in the June 4, 2008, Xpress.)
— Nelda Holder, associate editor
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