Boone proposal to tap river has residents raging

Folks on the front porch of the Riverside General Store in Ashe County yesterday criticized a proposal by the town of Boone to put a raw-water intake on the South Fork of the New River.

"It just kills me," said Kevin Dunne, who lives nearby. "I do not want that in here. It makes me sick."

Robert Morrison, a river guide, said that tubers keep popping inner tubes by hitting rocks because the water flow is already so low. He said he is furious about the Boone proposal.

"They're affecting all the people in Ashe County without caring about them, which I think is kind of rude," he said.

On Thursday, the Boone Town Council unanimously authorized an environmental assessment to study the effect of a pump station that could draw about 4 million gallons a day in Todd. The river forms the boundary between Watauga and Ashe counties here.

The study is expected to take 90 to 180 days. It will look at how a pump station would affect aquatic life, plant life and other things. The state won't issue a permit unless there's a finding that the intake would have no significant effect. The state also says that the amount of water taken out must be less than 20 percent of the river's 10-year lowest flow level, as calculated over seven days.

One big issue is that folks in Todd don't really know how taking 4 million gallons a day would affect the river.

"We're quite concerned," said Jack Milani, the president of the nearby Green Meadows Property Owners Association. "We don't know what 4 million gallons a day will do.… We don't want to be unreasonable; we just want to know what they're talking about."

Boone officials have made water issues a priority since a 2005 engineering report showed that the town needed to double its capacity by 2030 to meet expected needs. Town officials have been encouraging people to conserve water and have been looking for other water sources.

But it was a shock to Ashe residents when word got out last month that the Todd site was at the top of the list for a potential pump station. Boone has an option to buy 10 acres at the site for $850,000.

The project, for which financing is not yet in place, is estimated at $18.4 million, which would build the pump station and the 12 miles of pipeline to the Boone water-treatment plant. The plant's capacity is about 3 million gallons a day.

Town officials said that the capacity could be increased by about 1.5 million gallons a day by operating the plant differently. Doing so would provide more water availability while the town makes plans to expand the existing plant or build a new one. The proposal calls for eventually drawing 3 million gallons from the current intake on the South Fork in Boone and 4 million gallons from the proposed site in Todd.

Many said they are upset they haven't been provided more information.

Pam Biegert, who lives in Todd, said she has been trying to understand stream-flow tables kept for the U.S. Geological Services gauge on the South Fork of the New River near Jefferson. A field measurement in April showed the stream flow was about 176 million gallons a day at that site.

But she said she knows that the river is wider near Jefferson, and she wasn't sure how much stream flow there is at Todd.

"The 3 (million) to 4 million gallons may not be an impact at all, but that's the kind of information we haven't been able to get," she said, adding, "What is the real impact? If they can show there is not a real impact, I don't think people are going to be as upset about it."

Town officials said they have engineers working on providing more information, including stream-flow data.

Even if the permits were in hand today, it would take at least several years for the pump station to come online, said Rick Miller, Boone's public-utilities director.

Miller said he understands people's frustrations but knows that the town will comply with all regulations if the project is approved.

"We have to justify to our regulatory authorities we're not going to adversely impact any aquatic life or any uses downstream," he said. "We have to show we're not going to hurt that."

John Ashburn, whose family has deep roots in Todd, said he knows enough to be firmly opposed to putting the intake here.

"I don't know of a single person in the Todd area or Ashe County or even rural Watauga County that's in favor of it," Ashburn said.

■ Monte Mitchell can be reached in Wilkesboro at 336-667-5691 or at mmitchell@wsjournal.com.