$740,000 in NC money being spent to connect 4 mobile homes to a municipal water supply, the land is valued at $44,000 an acre.

Seems like it would be cheaper to condemn the land and build a park or something there. I know mountain folk hold their land near and dear, but when its cheaper to buy somebody out than to fix the problem for fucks sake buy them out. The rest of us don't go to work everyday so some hillbillies can stay where they are for sentimental purposes.

Quote :

"The solution that state and county officials have devised is hard for some advocates for clean drinking water to accept. The state plans to spend nearly $740,000 to run a two-mile water line to the narrow valley that the Fox homestead overlooks. The project will consume the entire $300,000 state lawmakers put in the 2006 budget to identify contaminated water systems, notify users and pay for improvements. The $300,000 wasn't enough to pay for the Fox waterline, so county officials asked the N.C. Rural Center for help, and the county has committed $120,000 of its own. The water line appears to be by far the state's most costly remedy, per household, for a fouled drinking water supply."

Quote :

"She and Wall said neither of the respective state funds carried any per-household spending limits, nor did they allow for alternatives such as buying residents out of their homes and relocating them. The Fox family lives on a narrow, one-acre wedge of property valued at $44,500."

http://www.newsobserver.com/news/health_science/story/886133.html

1/17/2008 1:27:49 PM

1/17/2008 1:34:15 PM

it's much more valuable with the water line. now they can sell it and make $.

1/17/2008 1:44:19 PM

I didn't see where it said how the wells became contaminated.

1/17/2008 1:55:43 PM

page 2

Quote :

"State and local officials say the benzene probably came from a long-closed gas station beside the expressway, which rides a ridge above the Fox homestead. State officials say it's unlikely they will be able to make the former station owners pay for the water line."

1/17/2008 1:57:32 PM

My mothers side of the family is from that area I know first hand that water is big business up there. In the mountains the terrain makes running county/city water to a lot of areas expensive. Whatever the guy up the hill from you is doing definitely effects your well quality. We even own some undeveloped land and the adjacent homes are having problems with their water following some more dense development above. All that is probably going to go to court and end up with the group (including us) settling for the right to obtain our water from the planned neighborhood above us and maybe some money to cover the cost of hooking on.

The family from this article is obviously in a huge hardship because their land is useless, they cant sell it with no water source. They did not cause the pollution, and there is no entity they can sue to get the repairs paid for. Meanwhile they are living in homes with unsafe water they cannot use.

I do not see any problem with government agencies stepping in to help them, but if the solution is more expensive than just relocating them, they should have to accept a relocation buyout. Certainly there is another tract of land in or around Sylva they can have their mobile homes moved to.

1/17/2008 1:59:02 PM

how does shit like this get approved?

thats who you need to be mad at....good for the hillbillies

1/17/2008 2:05:18 PM

i will laugh when a tornado strikes in April and destroys the mobile hoems

1/17/2008 2:06:45 PM

oh i thought this was in north carolina

and i thought this was in the mountains




so theres like a 0 percent chance of a tornado happening

1/17/2008 3:22:54 PM