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Deal Proposes Sale of Excess ASU Water to Blowing Rock

Story by Anna Oakes

While Blowing Rock suffers from an inadequate water supply, Appalachian State University has extra water available. If a proposal by Jim Deal comes to fruition, ASU could help alleviate Blowing Rock’s short-term water woes by transferring some of its excess water to the town during high-use months.

Deal was one of about 30 local elected officials and municipal staff attending an intergovernmental meeting held at Chetola Resort on Monday, April 28. He was present as both the chair of the ASU Board of Trustees and the chair of the Watauga County Board of Commissioners. Representatives from ASU, the county commissioners, and the towns of Boone, Blowing Rock and Seven Devils attended the meeting.

“We could probably give 500,000 gallons per day easily,” Deal said. “We need to figure out how to dispense that water to benefit everyone.”

Deal’s suggestion is contingent upon the connection of the Boone and ASU water systems and the connection of the Blowing Rock and Boone systems. Boone and ASU recently reached an agreement to connect their water systems to allow Boone to purchase water from the university to meet emergency needs. The N.C. Rural Center has approved a $160,000 grant for the cost of the project, Boone Town Manager Greg Young said.

Even more recently, the towns of Boone and Blowing Rock agreed to connect their water systems by constructing a 26,000-foot water line between the two municipalities. The contract stipulates water will be transferred between the systems only in emergencies. Boone has applied for a $1 million grant from the N.C. Rural Center to help finance the $4 million project. The town has not heard about the status of this grant, Young said.

Blowing Rock is eligible for a $300,000 grant from the Appalachian Regional Commission and has applied for additional grants.

Because of ASU’s renovation of facilities and installation of water-saving devices, ASU’s water consumption has declined, ASU Chief of Staff Lorin Baumhover said. But on the suggestion of selling excess water to Blowing Rock, he cautioned, “We can help on an interim basis, but ASU is not the solution, folks.

“Our water supply could be jeopardized as well,” Baumhover continued. “The university is quite willing to do its part, but we are a stopgap.”

Water was the key issue discussed during the three-hour meeting. To begin, Debbie Hamrick of N.C. Farm Bureau in Raleigh gave an overview of water issues and policy at the state level. Significant changes to statewide water laws are likely to come in the next long legislative session in 2009, she said.

At the conclusion of the meeting’s discussion on water, the intergovernmental group agreed to form subcommittees on the following six goals:
• Understand the combined current and projected water capacity and demand for ASU and all Watauga municipalities
• Stress conservation and investigate water-saving devices
• Talk with surrounding counties about potential water agreements
• Lobby state legislators as a unified group with unified requests
• Establish criteria for water policies as defined by all local municipal parties
• Develop public campaigns around changes in water policies and fees.

Each municipality and the university will have a representative official or staff member on each committee. The committees are to meet within 45 days.

The group also discussed a consolidation of the Watauga, Boone and Blowing Rock emergency dispatch systems. The county’s EMS advisory board has recommended the consolidation to improve emergency services, County Manager Rocky Nelson, a member of the board, said.

The Boone and Blowing Rock council members indicated they would like more information about consolidation and agreed to discuss the change at their council meetings.

The last item on the agenda was discussion about purchasing a new fire truck with a 100-foot ladder, primarily to service ASU. The current 100-foot truck is more than 20 years old, Boone Fire Chief Reggie Hassler said.

The group discussed drafting separate municipal resolutions of support and jointly lobbying the N.C. legislature for money for the truck, but before the group could agree to those actions, the meeting was cut short when Seven Devils Mayor Pro Tem Richard DeMott collapsed in his seat.

Hassler and Emergency Services Director Kent Graham rushed over to give first aid to DeMott, and the councilman had regained consciousness by the time rescue personnel arrived.