Water on a bluff

City Councilman Joe Hultquist convened a public meeting in South Knoxville to discuss a water tower that sprung up on Chapman Ridge above Fort Loudoun Lake in December. The tower sits on a small parcel of land just outside the city limits and will serve existing and future development along the ridge, including the Cherokee Bluff condominiums. The condominiums had been without adequate water service to meet fire protection needs since they were built, and they are the highest elevation development in the vicinity, thus dictating the height of the tower, which can be seen from downtown and many vantage points in South Knoxville. Two new developments along Cherokee Trail and a third in construction forced the Knoxville Utilities Board to upgrade its water service. Ratepayers will cover $600,000 of the $2.2 million price for the tower and water lines, with the two developers sharing the remainder. Two adjacent parcels of mostly undeveloped land would also be served by the tower should development plans materialize. The Metropolitan Planning Commission approved the tower in September, yet most residents and public officials learned of the project when they saw the tower erected. Hultquist said he would try to halt the project and also said the city should consider protecting its ridges. KUB and MPC officials attended the meeting to explain how the decision to build the tower was made.

Much ado about pipes

by Rikki Hall

Under pressure from the federal government and the City of Knoxville, Knox County finally passed a new stormwater ordinance intended to protect waterways from silt and other pollutants coming from developed land. The ordinance expands buffers around streams and allows developers to use low-impact site planning and building designs in stormwater management plans. Commissioners Tony Norman and Greg “Lumpy” Lambert gave dueling speeches from the podium to preface deliberations. Norman, a former biology teacher, emphasized the importance of clean water to the community, while Lambert stressed the economic impact of development. Norman proposed raising the minimum fine from $50 to $1,000 but was voted down. Lambert offered several amendments. He tried to remove federally mandated language about endangered species, claiming “environmental extremists” had put it there. His amendment loosening restrictions on pipes installed in public rights of way was adopted by the commission. Confusion reigned briefly during the meeting when John Valliant, head of the Home Builders Association, spoke to commission about “our amendments,” until he clarified that he was referring to the amendments offered by Commissioner Lambert. City officials, promised a stronger ordinance by Knox County in 2001, contemplated whether to sue over delays and weaknesses in the ordinance, and city council passed a resolution condemning the new regulations.

Road to Nowhere gets closer to destination

National Park Service officials announced the preferred alternative for the North Shore Road By Rikki Hall

Environmental Impact Statement would be a monetary settlement for Swain County, N.C. and no further road construction. The recommendation will be formally published in October, and public hearings and comment periods will be held before a final decision is made. If the settlement is chosen, the U.S. Congress will have to approve funds for the settlement, which was approved by Swain County Commission in 2002 but will likely require another vote by that body. Ever since Fontana Dam inundated a county road in the 1940s, construction of a replacement road through Great Smoky Mountains National Park has been debated. Bryson City, N.C. is now connected to the dam by a highway south of the impoundment, but the old roadway ran along what is now the north shore of Lake Fontana. Tennessee Senator Lamar Alexander and North Carolina Congressman Heath Shuler sent Park managers a letter in support of a monetary settlement and got all their colleagues in the regional delegation except North Carolina Senator Richard Burr and Tennessee Congressman John Duncan, Jr. to sign the letter. Duncan last year pledged his opposition to building the road in a letter to constituents.

Proposed quarry meets resistance

By Debbie Griffith

Tiny Ingalls, N.C., has found its voice. And it is green.
If you blink and miss the single road sign marking the community on U.S. 19E winding north through Avery County, the North Toe River on your left and Gusher Knob on your right, you would never know you had passed through Ingalls. Avery County, the last county formed in North Carolina, borders Tennessee south of Johnson City, near Roan Mountain State Park. It is home to Grandfather Mountain.
Out of this rugged wilderness, Ingalls’ voice is being heard across the region. A combination of native mountain dwellers and recent transplants from Florida, Atlanta and the North Carolina Piedmont have mobilized to protect a mountain they love called Burleson Bald. Part of the Yellow Mountain chain that includes Big Bald and Spear Tops, popular with hikers, it is close to a burgeoning real estate market.
Burleson Bald is threatened by a proposed 161-acre gravel quarry near the top of its southern flank. Quarry construction would peel away hardwood forests, laurel and rhododendron thickets and stands of shagbark hickory and tuliptree that in fall turn blazing yellow. In their place would be a rocky scar visible from many sections of the county and from two scenic overlooks on the Blue Ridge Parkway, four miles away.
The loss of the forest would be devastating, but the effects of the quarry would go far beyond that. Trout streams originating on site could be affected by silt and runoff. Groundwater supplies could be compromised in an area where virtually all families rely on shallow wells or spring boxes for drinking water. Air quality could be impacted by dust from blasting, crushing and hauling rock, and the tourism economy so valuable to the region could be adversely affected by the aesthetic blemish.
Avery County needs gravel, developer Randy Carpenter of Spruce Pine said, and he has scoured the county to find a place for a new gravel quarry.
Never mind that four homes lie within 500 feet of the site, and 50 families live along the narrow blacktop of Old Hanging Rock Road that would be the haul route for quarry trucks with growling jake brakes.
Never mind that the site is adjacent to the Yellow Mountain/Raven Cliffs Significant Natural Heritage Area known for rare and endangered plants and animals: sharp-shinned hawks, Gray’s lily, spreading avens, rock gnome lichen and many others.
Never mind that silt from the quarry could flow into the North Toe River, where the rare giant salamander that gives this newspaper its name, the eastern hellbender, struggles to survive.
Avery County needs gravel. But not from Burleson Bald, the Unincorporated Citizens Association to Protect Wildcat Cliffs said. The association has convinced the Avery County Board of Commissioners to impose a 90-day moratorium on high-impact industries like quarries and asphalt plants until the board can consider whether to adopt regulations to control where these industries locate and how they operate. Currently the county has no such regulations, no land-use requirements and no zoning, which in some sections of the county is seen as a threat to individual property rights. The citizens group is undeterred, but the clock is ticking on the moratorium, which ends in August.
Meanwhile, citizens used yard signs, community meetings, a Web site and door-to-door canvassing to turn out more than 200 people in late May to voice their opposition to the quarry at a public hearing held by the N.C. Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR). More than 35 people spoke to hearing officers in the historic Avery County Courthouse in Newland and pleaded for DENR to deny the mining permit. Staff from the Land Quality Section of DENR patiently listened to their pleas. Some residents had well researched data on dissolved oxygen, air quality, hydrological impacts and trout habitat. Others spoke from the heart, recounting the pleasures of walking mountain trails and fishing local creeks. “Putting a quarry on that mountain is about like letting Pizza Hut put their logo on the moon,” said lifelong Avery County resident Jodie Lovelace.
After two hours, DNER officials went back to Raleigh to consider what they heard. History indicates DNER never denies mining permits, relying instead on sometimes ineffective and lightly enforced mitigation efforts to protect water and air quality. DNER does not consider nuisances like noise from blasting or loss of property value when issuing mining permits. Those issues are left to county officials to regulate, and there are no regulations of that sort in Avery County. But that has not kept citizens from fighting to save Burleson Bald and Wildcat Cliffs, named for the bobcats that live there.
“We know this will be difficult, but we have to save this mountain,” said Ted Johnson, whose family has lived on Burleson Bald for generations. “Destroying the peace and tranquility of this community is unacceptable. This quarry will cause harm to our mountain, harm to the environment, harm to our property values and harm to the local economy. That’s too high a price to pay for gravel.”

Griffith works in public relations in Raleigh, N.C. and owns property near the proposed quarry.