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Sunday, October 18, 2009
Conspicuous Consumption
In 2002 the state of North Carolina was experiencing a major drought, "the worst in a century." Gov. Easley first solemnly requested that citizens "turn off the faucet when brushing their teeth," then issued a directive that local water systems and businesses "take quick steps to reduce their water use by 20 percent." Before the crisis began to end, Easley directed all state agencies to stop "nonessential" water use, including grass watering, saying the state should "lead by example."While all this was going on, the N&O reveals this morning, the governor or the governor's office (you know how vague these lines of responsibility become!) was also pulling strings to make sure that The Guv's private golf club in Chatham County got access to some 6 million gallons of water to keep those golf greens nice and vibrant.
The details of how those strings were pulled, you can read for yourself, but it's very clear that the comfort of the 300 rich members of the Old Chatham Golf Club (monthly membership dues: something over $500) was a good deal more important than the drought. Let the little people conserve water! The good ole boys need the green. (It's fairly edifying, too, to read the Old Chatham Golf Club website, especially the page devoted to the exclusivity of the membership, which included, only incidentally, NC Senate Honcho Tony Rand.)
Wanna know the icing on this particular Devil's Food cake? Easley got his membership FREE, and he didn't bother to report that benefit on his financial disclosure forms.
Labels: Mike Easley, Tony Rand, water resources
Wednesday, October 07, 2009
Arsenic and Old Ash
The corporate gift that just keeps on giving! Some 13 coal ash ponds on the Yadkin, the French Broad, and five other North Carolina rivers are leaking arsenic, cadmium, chromium, and lead -- metals known to cause cancer, neurological problems and other serious illnesses -- at levels, in some cases, exceeding 380 times state groundwater standards.Three of the waste ponds border the Catawba, which supplies drinking water to the greater Charlotte metropolitan kingdom.
But, who cares, really? Don't coal ash ponds signal JOBS, JOBS, JOBS? So what if a few hundred people get weird cancers? Who'll ever prove it was because of the drinking water?
Labels: coal industry, corporate power, water resources
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
The Downside of Good Intentions
Todd, N.C., residents near the South Fork of the New River are suspicious of Boone and intend to defend their waters from any poachers. That's understandable. But blind opposition to Boone's permit request to draw a maximum of 4 million gallons a day from a river that's flowing at a rate of 50 or 60 million gallons a day may cause them to shoot wildly into their own foot.The progressive mayor and Town Council of Boone wants to do more than the law requires. That is, they want permission from the state to put the water intake completely out of sight in the riverbed, and out of the way of recreational users of the river.
For no particular nor logical reason that we can discern, the Todd area citizens united to fight this project want that special permission defeated, so that Boone would have to follow the minimum standards of water intake and put the piping structure in full view on the banks of the river.
In other words, if the opposition wins, they lose, and they'll get an uglier facility.
Not that the facility itself is the issue for them. It's the very idea of any town government anywhere in the known universe taking their water. Which, again, is humanly understandable, given the acquisitive assumptions of the species, but ultimately rather silly and ... self-defeating.
Labels: Boone, water resources
Thursday, February 12, 2009
Tarleton Named To Head New Water Resources Committee
Speaker of the NC House Joe Hackney has named Rep. Cullie Tarleton of Watauga to head a new committee that is a direct result of last summer's major drought. Tarleton will head a new panel on "Water Resources and Infrastructure," which will take perhaps the first comprehensive statewide look at where the water will come from for future long-term economic development.Radio Girl Laura Leslie has an audio interview with Tarleton about the new assignment posted on Isaac Hunter's Tavern here (scroll down).
Labels: Cullie Tarleton, Laura Leslie, water resources
