Meeting on Fuquay-Varina plan to take water from Cape Fear River held in Raleigh
People on Tuesday will have a moment to weigh in on Fuquay-Varina’s plan to take millions of gallons of water per day from the Cape Fear River.
According to plans proposed by the town, it is seeking an Interbasin Transfer Certificate (IBT) ot take 6.17 million gallons per day (MGD) from the river for the town’s use without replacing it.
The North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality (NCDEQ) is hosting a meeting on the environmental impacts of the plan at 6 p.m. in Raleigh.
According to the town, Fuquay-Varina currently purchases wholesale water from Raleigh, Harnett and Johnston counties, adding that the supply would not be able to meet future demands.
The plan, which was first proposed in 2020, has drawn stark opposition from other communities downstream, including Fayetteville and Wrightsville Beach.
Fayetteville Mayor Mitch Colvin said that while he supports Fuquay-Varina using the river’s water, he said not returning the 6 MGD would impact the city down the road.
“There’s a way we could support this if they could return the water to the basin, that was the biggest discrepancy,” said Fayetteville mayor Mitch Colvin.
The Cape Fear River is a source of drinking water for more than 500,000 people in North Carolina. The amount of water Fuquay-Varina is asking to use would be enough to fill 102,000 bathtubs every day or nearly match the reflecting pool of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.
Several groups, including the Fayetteville Public Works Commission and the North Carolina Wildlife Commission, have already expressed concerns about the plan.
“If approved, PWC could have to go to Drought Level One conservation measures on day one because of the reduction in water flow, even if our area is not in a drought,” FPWC said on its website. “Less water also means less dilution of contaminants from upstream. This would require downstream communities to invest millions of dollars in additional water and wastewater treatment.”
NCDEQ will hold a third and final meeting on the environmental impacts of the plan at 6 p.m. on Thursday at the Chatham County Agriculture & Conference Center in Pittsboro.