Asheville City Council Set to Hear Stream Buffer Proposals

During tonight's meeting, the Asheville City Council is set to hear rulings being proposed that could change the size of the buffer bordering the city's streams. The affected area could amount to as much as 8% of the city's land when the approximately 200 miles of streams in Asheville are multiplied by the 50 foot buffers being proposed. The proposal would bar most new construction and development within the buffers.

A recent North Carolina law has mandated that municipalities of a certain size must create buffers along side streams that are at least 30 feet wide. The belief is that the buffers will fight erosion and combat the threats posed by flash flooding. The proposal that Asheville-based proponents have assembled has added an additional 20 feet in the belief that a 50 foot buffer would meet the sediment and erosion problems more common to this area of the state. Quite possibly the more reduced the amount of dredging and widening of stream beds, the less susceptible areas are to flooding.

The debate will put environmentalists on one side and some land- and home-owners on the other. Conservationists and environmentalists believe that the buffers, by reducing sediment, will thereby reduce a major cause of pollution. They also see the buffers as a type of natural strainer that could help filter out pollutants before they can reach the city's waterways. Among those taking this position are members of Clean Water for North Carolina. Since 1984, they have been tackling local environmental problems and issues and their impact on the public. Gracia O'Neil, assistant director of the organization, has said that, "Water is a public resource and people don't have a right to degrade that resource for the sake of their own pocketbook." These concerns are based on evidence that some developers and home owners are responsible for dumping pollutants into the streams from their properties.