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Ruralite Cafe: Published 3/30/00

By Lynn Hotaling



Who's looking after our mountain streams?

 By Lynn Hotaling-Associate Editor
In my favorite book, "To Kill a Mockingbird," Atticus looks at a very dirty Dill and tells him to "put part of the county back where it belongs." I was reminded of that passage while looking at the pictures of Young Lake before and after upstream golf course development. Somebody needs to make sure the dirt that holds our rocks together stays right here in Jackson County.

Those pictures convinced a 12-member local jury of the rightness of the Youngs' lawsuit, and they convinced me that standards now in place to regulate development just aren't adequate.

Trying to track down just how erosion and sedimentation on such large projects is monitored was not an easy task. I started with the water quality division of the N.C. Department of Environment and Natural Resources. Right department, wrong division. Turns out the dirt that washes into streams is the province of the land quality section of the land resources division.

When I heard that development within designated watersheds (like the Tuckaseigee) that are used for drinking water are controlled at the county level, I thought my problems were over.

I promptly called County Manager Jay Denton. Chairman Jay was his usual helpful self but said he didn't believe this county's watershed board has much to say about large-scale golf course/residential developments like Highlands Cove. He did know who could fill me in on the details, though.

Head building inspector John Wittekind is also Jackson County's watershed administrator. That means he applies the provisions of the county's watershed ordinance to those who apply for building permits.

But the county's watershed ordinance doesn't have anything to do with erosion and sedimentation, Wittekind said. It's about vegetative buffers and setbacks from streams and rivers. It deals with percentage of lots that can be covered with impervious surfaces and density rules.

Our local ordinance is designed to keep petroleum products and toxic substances out of our drinking water through vegetative buffers and setbacks. The idea is that plant material will filter out the bad chemicals and such. It's a good thing - it just doesn't go far enough.

Jackson County does not have an erosion ordinance, Wittekind told me, and state inspectors only regulate sites where more than an acre is disturbed. And state standards are not absolute - developers can meet the state's requirements as long as they follow Best Management Practices no matter what is happening downstream.

In the case of Young Lake, state standards don't seem to have been good enough. Inspectors visited the site often but never reported any violations of Highlands Cove's erosion control plan. Almost unbelievably, despite the fact that turbidity levels in Grassy Camp Branch - a trout stream - were measured at 200 times the recommended level for a trout stream, the development technically was never out of compliance.

The jury didn't buy it.

What convinced them? The pictures, the before and after data, the testimony about damage to fish habitat, the loss of wildlife and the ugliness where once there was beauty.

What is it going to take to convince our county leaders to act soon to prevent more of our county from being washed down to the Mississippi delta?

I wish I knew.

This county's planning board is drafting an erosion-control ordinance. According to information we received from Phil Gibson at Western North Carolina Tomorrow, "sediment continues to be the number one water pollutant in the streams of WNC." The accurateness of that statement is demonstrated after every hard rain. Commissioners need to pass an erosion control ordinance that has some teeth. Soon.

However, after seeing how a reasonable ordinance to limit billboards was watered down by three commissioners, I wonder what the fate of an erosion-control ordinance will be. One sign company was able to eviscerate the billboard ordinance; just imagine what a combined group of developers, contractors and earth-movers will be able to do to stall an erosion law.

Controls that do an adequate job of preventing erosion will be expensive. Developers will oppose them. Conservationists will applaud them. Only commissioners can put such measures in place to protect Jackson County's streams.

I personally didn't move here 30 years ago for the views of scraped-off mountainsides that are becoming all too common. Just because the technology now exists to allow development of steep areas once considered out of reach doesn't mean such development should always be allowed in the high places that are the sources of our streams and rivers.

I hope our commissioners and planners will work together to put stricter standards in place locally.

We need to keep our county where it belongs.

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