LOUISBURG, N.C. — A regional water fight that spilled into the General Assembly this spring has been settled at the local level. Franklin County commissioners on Monday approved an amendment that raises the fast-growing county’s daily purchase limit from the Kerr Lake Regional Water System by as much as 1 million gallons.
Under the agreement, the eighth amendment to a 1998 contract to sell water to Franklin County, the county will pay $5.01 for every 1,000 gallons it draws above its current 2-million-gallon allocation. Henderson had already signed off: its council voted unanimously on Oct. 12 with no debate, and Mayor Melissa Elliott put her signature on the amendment three days later. The Franklin County board approved it as part of its consent agenda.
Kerr Lake, on the Virginia line, supplies drinking water to towns across four counties: Franklin, Granville, Vance and Warren. Warren County and the cities of Henderson and Oxford own the regional system that treats and sells it. Franklin sits farthest from the lake but is growing fastest; state demographers project it will be the second-fastest growing county in North Carolina from 2020 to 2030, behind only Brunswick County on the coast.
The upstream owners had resisted selling more water at the price Franklin County wanted to pay, and the standoff pulled in state lawmakers. A bill filed this year would have allowed Franklin County to condemn land in neighboring counties, opening the door to a county-built plant on the lake or a takeover of the existing one. Protesters crowded the Legislative Building, and the provision died, but negotiations continued out of public view.
The deal arrives as supply tightens. Drought this year has dropped water levels at Kerr Lake even as demand from new homes and industry climbs across the region north of the Triangle. State House members whose districts cover the counties involved, from both parties, welcomed the agreement as a first step toward better regional cooperation.
Section: More Raleigh NC politics news
Filed under: Raleigh NC Politics News
