Both houses in the N.C. General Assembly passed a bill June 26 putting a pause on interbasin transfers, including the one Charlotte Water has requested that would affect the Catawba River.
House Bill 850 passed in the N.C. House by a vote of 105 to 1. The bill was sponsored by Catawba County Republicans Jay Adams and Mitchell Setzer, Burke County Republican Hugh Blackwell and Republican Blair Eddins, who represents Alexander and Wilkes counties.
The bill passed in the state Senate unanimously.
N.C. Gov. Josh Stein signed the bill into law on Wednesday.
According to Western Piedmont Council of Governments Executive Director Anthony Starr, the bill puts a moratorium on large interbasin transfer approvals until after March 2027.
An interbasin transfer is when water from one source is transferred to a basin sourced by a different body of water.
鈥淭he General Assembly has recognized there is a problem and this is something that needed to be studied,鈥� Starr said.
The bill says the North Carolina Collaboratory at the University of North Carolina will study legislation around interbasin transfer requests and present its findings to the General Assembly.
The bill defines a large interbasin transfer as a transfer of more than 15 million gallons per day.
Among other issues, the collaboratory will study the effects of the economic impact on communities affected by transfers, increased water pollution and changes to the transfer request process needed due to "recent climate trends."听
In the case of Charlotte Water, the public utility in Mecklenburg County was from the Catawba River basin to the Yadkin-Pee Dee River basin.听Charlotte Water currently has an interbasin transfer certificate that allows it to transfer up to 33 million gallons per day to the Yadkin-Pee Dee basin.
Charlotte had not received approval for the request but was in the process of receiving approval from the N.C. Department of Environmental Quality.听
Charlotte Water requested the transfer as it anticipates growth in Mecklenburg County, particularly the eastern part of the county. The utility does not have the infrastructure in place to send all water back to the Catawba River basin.
Charlotte uses over 100 million gallons of water per day. That water is sourced from Mountain Island Lake and Lake Norman to serve more than one million customers. Both lakes are supplied by the Catawba River.
Charlotte Water discharges most of its treated water back to the Catawba River but also discharges to the Yadkin-Pee Dee basin.
Residents and elected officials at public meetings in Hickory, 麻豆传媒 and other locations in North Carolina and South Carolina.
Municipalities and counties in the region, including Hickory and Catawba County, last year. Reasons cited for opposing the transfer included worries that the transfer of water would limit growth of communities along the Catawba River. Communities also expressed concerns about the impact of drought combined with interbasin transfers on water levels.
The Western Piedmont Council of Governments to oppose the interbasin transfer request last year.
Protect our Water Protect Our Future, an organization that worked with state legislators to oppose large interbasin transfers, proposes limiting future interbasin transfer requests. One solution proposed is to 鈥減ass legislation to limit IBTs that exceed 30 million gallons per day and makes them temporary.鈥� The other involves all stakeholders working together to protect 鈥渞ural North Carolinians from policies that hinder their ability to grow and resource their own communities.鈥�
鈥淲e hope the General Assembly and UNC Collaboratory will consider those (proposals) to address the issues with the system we have now where one community, like Charlotte, can take actions such as these large IBTs that are detrimental to other communities in the river basin,鈥� Starr said.
鈥淲e鈥檙e not against Charlotte growing, we just don鈥檛 want it to be at our expense.鈥�