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Honesty is still a Cullowhee value
To the Editor:
Have you ever lost your wallet or keys?
If so, you know the sinking feeling that hits your stomach and pierces your soul once you discover the loss. Last week I lost my wallet and keys in Cullowhee. Within days the wallet was found. I now know great efforts were explored to return the wallet to me. It was through a friend’s cell number and an e-mail that the wallet and I were reunited.
Due to the honesty of one family, I know there is still reason to believe that Cullowhee is one of the most awesome places to live in Western North Carolina.
Ashley Parrish
Cullowhee
Duke Power's actions are 'inexcusable'
To the Editor:
Duke Power's plans and environmental studies in applying for the 'surrendering of their license' and removing the Dillsboro Dam came out last week for review. This final step comes just six weeks before Duke intends to officially file their formal request in June before the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
Never before in the history of Western North Carolina have so many meetings occurred and so much documentation produced for such a poorly-planned initiative.
This rubber- stamped report was agreed to by environmental resource agency stakeholders and then less than half of the local Tuckasegee Stakeholders, when the Stakeholder Agreement was signed just a few months ago.
What was endorsed is an agreement not fully divulged at the signing, but now is fully disclosed and brazenly forwarded by Duke Power. It will be very hard for us in Dillsboro, and most in Jackson County, to swallow, if these plans are allowed to happen.
The Duke proposal represents and contains a bare- bones consulting study and dam removal plan with no sediment dredging. The plan is to remove the whole dam and flush downriver somewhere between 200-500,000 cubic yards of sand-based sediment.
This location was once known for accumulating such great quantities that dredging operations existed here in the past. Sediment has continued to accumulate since those dredging operations.
Also, this half-million dollar plan calls for very little restoration and shoreline stabilization of the mile-long run of the river reservoir.
These latest developments follow a recent neighborhood study done with longtime residents revealing the history of dredging activity along Dillsboro Dam and Reservoir.
Historical fact-finding with Dillsboro neighbors who have grown up and lived in homes along the banks of the river and worked in industries powered by this dam has produced credible historical information, especially about physical effects to the depth and contour of the river bottom.
There are facts about the historic dredging business that existed from the late 1940s into the 1960s, impacting the depth of the reservoir. Land on both sides of the reservoir was used for sand pumping storage, where there were multiple 25-foot- high mounds of sediment, extending about a mile up both sides.
There has not been an effort to recognize this past industry in Duke's environmental study. In fact there has been and continues to be, a concerted effort by Duke and resource agencies to avoid this issue. This is inexcusable.
Many local residents who used to swim in the reservoir as children said that when it was regularly dredged they would dive into deep holes in the river. They said it was common knowledge about a significantly deeper reservoir farther up than expected by Duke consultants and resource agency biologists.
References to "holes as much as 28-feet deep behind the dam" are reported. They also report greater-than-projected- depths up the reservoir, with a channel on the north side of the river as much as 18 feet deep, as far as 1/2 mile up the reservoir. Dredging activity took place as far as 3/4 mile up the reservoir, they said.
Drag line and bucket scooping practices were utilized, possibly causing even greater depths than the original river bed. The Tuckasegee River has a 'bedrock river bottom' so real science should be applied to determine the depths of the riverbed upwards to about a mile from these activities.
We understand from a recent visit by watershed expert George Annandale that the depth of deposited sediment, without knowing the original river bottom contour, can be determined using available sub-bottom profiling technology and side-scan radar. This information would be important to establish real science on the Dillsboro Reservoir.
Comprehensive research and planning has not occurred. Duke is making every effort to capitalize on this lack of study in order to minimize their costs.
The depth of the reservoir is critical in determining the amount of accumulated sediment behind the dam. Significantly higher accumulations of sediment will likely have devastating impacts on the ecology of the river, our tourism based businesses, economy and local recreation.
In Dillsboro we're concerned about the demise of fishing, which will be endangered for decades, if the dam is removed. As an historic neighborhood we are also concerned about our property values. The loss of quality fishing locations and poor aesthetics related to what is a poorly planned and funded dam removal initiative and restoration plan is being railroaded through our neighborhood.
T. J. Walker
Dillsboro FERC Intervener
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