Fuquay-Varina interbasin transfer receives more pushback during 2nd hearing, as Oak Island joins opposition

OAK ISLAND, NC (WWAY) — The North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality held a hearing about the town of Fuquay Varina’s Interbasin Transfer request in Raleigh on Tuesday night.

This was the second of 3 hearings held about the transfer request.

Dozens of people from towns like Fayetteville, including Courtney Barnes, spoke out against the transfer.

Barnes said Fuquay-Varina is not thinking about the impact the transfer would have on towns downstream of it.

“This is not how we should treat a shared resource that keeps entire communities alive,” Barnes said. “Every decision we make upstream has a real impact downstream. The town of Fuquay-Varina’s request as written give the impression that the needs downstream do not matter.”

First proposed back in 20-20, the transfer would take more than 6 million gallons of water from the Cape Fear River every day for the town’s use, without replacing the water.

This is not the first time a town has made such a request, as the towns of Cary and Apex both made transfer requests back in 2015, for more than 9 million gallons per day.

An agreement was eventually made that saw those towns return wastewater into the river basin.

Kenneth Waldroup, the executive director of the Cape Fear Public Utility Authority, spoke at the hearing and said there are issues with the models used by the town as part of the application for the transfer.

“We note that the model is utterly inadequate to look at the interplay of groundwater and surface-water in the lower Cape Fear,” Waldroup said. “I encourage you, for these reasons, to require a full reevaluation of this model.”

At the same time as the hearing in Raleigh, the Oak Island town council unanimously approved a resolution concurring with Brunswick County in opposition to the transfer, one of the last items Liz White helped pass as town mayor.

White spoke about concerns over PFAS levels increasing as water levels drop if the transfer was approved.

Several people at the Raleigh hearing spoke about the need for a hearing to be held in Wilmington, a sentiment White agreed with.

“Would give the people in Southeast Brunswick County an opportunity to speak against this,” White said. “As it currently exists, all of the hearings are being held in Raleigh, so there’s kind of an unfair representation. So the people that will suffer the consequences don’t have a voice.”

Despite those requests to hold a hearing in Wilmington, plans for any additional hearings have not been discussed.

A third and final hearing will be held on Thursday in Pittsboro.