Water, wells and wildlife

As a Fairview resident living approximately half a mile from The Cliffs at High Carolina and the Tiger Woods golf course, now under construction: Please hear our cries!

We, along with all residents of the Spring Mountain community, rely totally on wells and springs for our homes. Western North Carolina is in an extreme drought (see: www.ncdrought.org). We appeal to your sense of world community and respect for the seriousness of this situation. The duration of this drought is very concerning to all of us in Buncombe County. Now, the planned Tiger Woods golf course will require enormous volumes of water every day to construct and sustain, as well as the large estates to be built on this 3,000-acre development site.

Our neighborhood may already be impacted. Just three weeks after The Cliffs began excavating on our side of the mountain, a neighbor at the top of the ridge lost his spring. This same neighbor now has to haul his water up the mountain to his home. Who is next?

We are scared, not only for the loss of our well water, but also for the contamination of our wells from the chemicals that may be used on this golf course and development. We have been given no guarantee from the developer, Jim Anthony, that none will be used. We are all downhill from The Cliffs.

Additionally, we now have bear sightings on a regular basis as they continue to lose their habitat. How will The Cliffs at High Carolina remedy their situation?

In the spirit of conservation and reasoning, we plead to you to let common sense prevail. It’s not too late to stop this madness. We are, after all, stewards of the Earth. Let’s act like it.

The world has enough golf courses, and fewer and fewer nature preserves. I propose The Tiger Woods Nature Preserve. Now that’s a proud legacy we can all live with.

— Cindy Hady
Fairview

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4 thoughts on “Water, wells and wildlife

  1. gayle mudge

    Cindy,
    The point that you make is right on target.
    It seems that everywhere we look lately Asheville is rolling over for greed and putting a For Sale sign on our views, water and habitats.
    How do we vote NO?!
    Gayle Mudge

  2. Cynthia Justice

    In response to the thoughtful, reasoned letter Water, Wells and Wildlife, I want to quote from the recent issue of Clean Currents, Clean Water for NC’s newsletter:Duke intern, Teagan Ward says “North Carolina has become more vulnerable to drought events in recent years as a result of rapid population growth, which has led to increasing freshwather demands.” From the summary of a coming report, Boniventure Mwapule, also a Duke intern, writes “Increasing development pressures combined with extremely complex hydrogeology make it practically impossible to predict how new (or increased) withdrawals and impervious surface on mountaintops might affect current well and spring users in the Piedmont and Western NC..” This is scary stuff, folks..running out of water..

  3. Chuck Connors

    It is about time we all made the mega-developers feel very unwelcome in WNC. When they have become educated that dollars invested here are a poor bet they will go somewhere else.

    The small green, efficient developers should be welcomed. Building small communities and micro-communities within larger towns and cities can work. But the carrying capacity of the land is finite so where will the water come from?

    The water will come from educating people and giving them positive reinforcements for efficiency and conservation. We have to trap more water for ourselves and our communities in the mountains. Roof top collection/cisterns are only a beginning. There are other ways to do this also. Think small!

  4. J. Scott Hinkle

    We live on the other side of the Cliff’s mountain in Swannanoa. One of our neighbors has lost their well water and the streams are showing silt, likely from the road construction above us at the Cliffs. I agree that Asheville can become a place that will be over-developed and then residents will begin to pull up stakes and move out. Or, county leadership can begin to assist the residents being impacted by the Cliff’s development.

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