2013 COUNTY-BY-COUNTY WATERSHED HIGHLIGHTS:
TOWNS COUNTY, GA. – Volume 3
By Tom Bennett
Special to Hiwassee River Watershed Coalition
Hiawassee, Ga., Jan. 6, 2014 – In a Deep South uniformly colored red on political maps, state and local officials faithfully attend public meetings with citizens who employ them. As they hear Big Government flayed, the officials listen in attentive silence. Then they go their vehicles, start them up, and race back to the office to see if federal dollars have come through for projects of one kind or another that are awaiting funding in their fiscal budgets.
In the City of Young Harris, which alternative will Georgia Dept. of Transportation (GDOT) choose for “increased vehicular capacity on State Road 515 from Young Harris Street in Blairsville to Timberlane Drive north of Young Harris” – as aired at a 2011 open house?
Will a wider SR 515 pierce the heart of that scenic village and also roughly abut Young Harris College? Or will an enhanced roadway bypass all and go around the north side, crossing Brasstown Creek in the process?
A $3,467,961 bridge replacement on State Road 66 northwest of Young Harris, targeted for construction in 2016 and with 80 percent of the money to come from the federal government, is detailed on page 282 of the Ga. Dept. of Transportation Improvement Program. The web site last updated Oct. 24th indicates only $30,000 has been earmarked for this bridge replacement at this writing. It seems to set the stage for a bypass around the north side of the appealing village of Young Harris. If this project is undertaken, I hope Brasstown Creek is vigorously protected.
SARA POSEY is an idealistic young woman and member of a family owning a primary realty firm for parcels on N.C. 294 – across the basin of Hiwassee Lake. It’s the next large reservoir in the TVA chain downstream from Chatuge. Posey majored in environmental science, earning a bachelor’s degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2013.
She has returned to the watershed to become Lake Chatuge watershed coordinator for the Hiwassee River Watershed Coalition, finishing the 2-year grant project term started by Scarlett Fuller. “I grew up in this area and it’s always been one of my goals to improve the water quality,” Posey said.
THE CITY OF HIAWASSEE IS A PACESETTER in the Hiwassee River watershed. In addition to the September 2012 adoption of an ordinance to manage stormwater from new commercial construction projects, early in 2013, the City became the first municipality to provide operating support to the Watershed Coalition. The City also funded bi-monthly bacterial and chemical monitoring of two sites in Lake Chatuge and continues doggedly determined toward the goal of reducing nitrogen and phosphorus in its wastewater treatment plant discharge.
Towns County has 1993 comprehensive subdivision regulations and a 2006 mountain protection ordinance. These are not to be found in the North Carolina counties in any form — other than something billowy and batted out years ago to land a grant.
North Carolina’s present governor has completed a gutting of the once model Clean Water Management Trust Fund (CWMTF), a primary funding source for the Coalition’s restoration program. It’s down from a onetime $100 million to whatever is made each year from the sale of personalized auto tags. The progressive North Carolina of a generation ago is gone. For the local governments in Georgia that help make up HRWC, a new generation is called on to stir the embers and keep providing leadership in watershed protection.
THERE’S AN UNEASY PEACE in Georgia’s water war. Over the great north Georgia massif from here, a search is underway for every crude indentation in the earth or old quarry that can be turned into a lake storing fresh water. Not on this side, however. The Hiwassee flows north and is managed like a great series of faucets by Knoxville, Tenn.-based TVA. The Hiwassee and its lakes could be even more isolated and their future uncertain if TVA is privatized as has been proposed by some in our nation’s capital.
Tom Bennett of the Martins Creek community near Murphy, N.C., was a retired newsman, Hiwassee River Watershed Coalition member/volunteer/donor and recipient of the 2015 Holman Water Quality Stewardship Award. Tom died on December 28, 2020.