Some state lawmakers want to create an exemption in state law to let Franklin County buy or condemn land in Vance, Warren and Halifax counties \u2014 even if those counties don\u2019t agree to it.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Republican-backed bill, which is scheduled for a vote this week, makes no distinction over what kind of property Franklin County would be allowed to take, or for what reasons. If it passes, opponents say, it\u2019ll set a dangerous precedent in the high-stakes fights over a key resource in this fast-growing state: water.<\/p>\n
Nearly all 100 North Carolina counties are currently under severe or extreme drought conditions<\/a>, leading to cities including Raleigh implementing new restrictions on residents\u2019 water usage. It\u2019s a historic drought<\/a> for North Carolina, WRAL has reported \u2014 part of a larger national trend. For the U.S. as a whole, CNN reported, March was the driest month on record since the Dust Bowl<\/a> in 1934.<\/p>\n But even without the current drought conditions, water is increasingly in focus in North Carolina. It\u2019s not an infinite resource, and every bit of growth requires more water. People need it for their homes and lawns. Businesses need it for everything from bathrooms to massive industrial applications \u2014 especially one of the state\u2019s most important industries, pharmaceutical manufacturing.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWater and sewer are really important for things like life sciences-related business recruitment,\u201d Chris Chung, chief executive of the Economic Development Partnership of North Carolina, told lawmakers last week during a legislative oversight committee meeting.\u00a0<\/p>\n And as the state\u2019s population continues to grow unevenly \u2014 many rural areas have been shrinking even as the big cities and suburbs are exploding in size \u2014 the battles between counties over water have grown more pronounced. Franklin County, for instance, projects that over the next 50 years its population will more than double and its water needs will more than triple.<\/p>\n The bill would enable Franklin County to get around its current water-buying arrangement by taking land in Vance, Warren and Halifax counties \u2014 three upstream communities that are home to major rivers and lakes, including Kerr Lake, whose water could potentially be shipped south.<\/p>\n Rep. Brian Cohn, D-Granville, said many of the towns and cities north of the Triangle \u2014 Oxford, Henderson and Warrenton, among others \u2014 get their water from Kerr Lake, a massive and manmade body of water that straddles the Virginia-North Carolina border.<\/p>\n Some of the border municipalities co-own a water plant, treating and cleaning water for their own residents\u2019 use, and selling water to communities downstream, including Franklin County. And tensions over control and pricing of the water are nothing new.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is like a Hatfield-and-McCoy type of situation,\u201d Cohn said in an interview, referring to the legendary Civil War-era feud between families on the Kentucky-West Virginia border. \u201cIt stretches back, probably to the 1970s, among the partners in this water plant.\u201d<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\u2018A generational challenge\u2019<\/p>\n Recently, Cohn said, Franklin County has asked to join in the partnership controlling that water plant. That makes sense, he added, given its population boom. Franklin County\u2019s population grew about 35% to 82,000 residents from 2010 to 2025. \u201cAll growing communities want to secure their source of water for the future,\u201d Cohn said. \u201cThere\u2019s nothing nefarious about that.\u201d<\/p>\n But where he and others have a problem is in the solution being proposed: Rather than having Franklin County work with the neighboring counties who control the water, and work out a deal like in the past, the bill would let Franklin County buy or condemn any land it wants in any of those counties.<\/p>\n