2011 COUNTY-BY-COUNTY WATERSHED HIGHLIGHTS:
CLAY COUNTY, N.C. – Volume 1
By Tom Bennett
Special to Hiwassee River Watershed Coalition
Hayesville, N.C., February 7, 2012 – Clay is the smallest North Carolina county with only 221 square miles, yet some big water-quality dispute always is being fought here. With surgical detail, two Southern Environmental Law Center attorneys (it has 38 doing work for it) tore into Michael Anderson’s bid for an easement across U.S. Forest Service land. The Dec. 6 letter from the lawyers strongly implies a lawsuit is imminent if necessary to stop the road.
A Forest Service environmental assessment (EA) of the road plan by Anderson’s group should be rejected because it “falls short of the agency’s obligations under the National Environmental Policy Act,” wrote Austin D.J. Gerken and Rebecca Jaffe. The Forest Service document “presents the public with a predetermined conclusion, ignores reasonable alternatives, and insufficiently assesses potential environmental impacts.”
Thirty-one years ago, the U.S. granted access across Alaska public land in the building of an oil pipeline. Who could have expected this would be used to justify access in 2011 to what North Carolinians say will be their primitive cabins? “The Forest Service should withdraw this project,” they wrote.
Michael Anderson and nine others own 43 acres at 3,900 feet. This inholding drains the Outstanding Resource Waters of Fires Creek. He may have assured investors he has the know-how to secure the easement, for he is former county manager.
NOW THAT MARK AND WILL ADKINS and their Waterfront Group of Huntersville, N.C., have sold 60 lots in Hidden River subdivision on Lance Cove Road here, the burden falls on homebuilders. Can up to 60 comply with the twin brothers’ Hidden River covenants? Can they avoid be-spoiling the very stretch of the Hiwassee River into which the Outstanding Resource Waters flow?
And this is not far from Mission Quarry, where in 2006 its then owner was “putting rocks into the Hiwassee River as big as Volkswagens,” a N.C. Dept. of Water Quality inspector told me.
Where do you find out about this designation of streams? In the half-inch-thick Hiwassee River Basinwide Water Quality Plan last issued in 2007. But that was at least discounted (I hope not ignored) by a former county manager; by the writer of the otherwise copious source list in the USFS’ assessment of Michael Anderson’s plan; by Harrison Development of Greenwood, S.C., which flopped earlier at Hidden River; by the twins’ Waterfront Group; and by Western Materials of Robbinsville, former Mission Quarry owner.
What further harm is in store for a priceless U.S. natural resource, the bright reach where Fires Creek meets the Hiwassee River?
ONGOING MERGER talks between Vulcan Materials of Birmingham, Ala., and Martin Marietta Materials of Raleigh are surely being closely watched at Belgard Castle in Dublin, Ireland. That’s headquarters of Cement Roadstone Holdings whose subsidiary, Harrison Construction-APAC of Alcoa, Tenn., operates Hayesville Quarry here. It’s beheading Shewbird Mountain for road-building. A study to identify streams at the base was unsuccessful because after mountaintop removal, there aren’t any.
EVERY EXPEDITION sent out here has a mission. Hernando De Soto’s for Spain in 1539-43 was to get the gold. Kristy Carter’s for the N.C. Dept. of Commerce in 2009-10 was to build a cooperative society that can climb out of poverty — and also protect natural resources. Her first triumph in winning local approval of a 10-year comprehensive plan was here in Clay County. A vague record of De Soto’s swath remains, but the Carter document is all over the Internet. It’s up to future county commissions, and county managers staying on board longer, to make this work.
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.