November 2nd—plus three weeks. Some people have wondered if I just fell off the face of the earth without commenting on Caldwell County’s 2010 local elections.
The truth is, Leslie and I had long planned a 10-day drive to Texas and back—to deliver a couple of bookcases in person—then a three-day swing to the Washington, DC, area, to complete a series of visits to all six grandchildren during “birthday season.” The first trip in the series of three actually was to coastal North Carolina in mid-October.
Butt-weary from almost 5,000 extra miles in a month, I nonetheless have had plenty of time to think things through and to analyze.
First, the main thing these 2010 countywide elections proved to me is that “the people have spoken,” as they do in every election. Part of what they said in Caldwell County is, “we want somebody to clean up Lake Rhodhiss if we are going to continue to get our drinking water there.” More on that later.
Secondly, in virtually all the major partisan elections, there was usually at least a 2-to-1 margin of victory by Republicans over Democrats, and in two cases, Libertarians, too. That says quite a bit about the character of the electorate in Caldwell County: in general, people want smaller, less costly, more effective government.
Even the “Unaffiliateds” are fiscally and socially conservative.
The overwhelming preference for Republican office-holders in Caldwell County means that the majority of citizens—no matter the often-liberal opinions of Lenoir News-Topic editorial writers—buys into the conservative philosophy of local GOP leaders. Democrats had a number of individually attractive candidates, but, in the end, voters were afraid that the small-print “Democrat” under their names on the ballot would result in more uncontrolled spending.
Third, in the nonpartisan elections like Board of Education and my own Soil & Water Conservation District, the people clearly expressed a preference for incumbents. Although a newly retired teacher led all candidates’ vote totals in winning a school board seat as a newcomer, the other four elected to the school board already are serving on the board.
In my race, there was considerable confusion caused by an odd set of facts—I was the only candidate actually on the ballot, but there were two seats open, so two pretty-well-organized write-in campaigns resulted. At the early voting and on Election Day, the voters were faced with three choices for two seats, and two were not on the ballot.
I especially want to thank all those who voted for me, but even more, those who had an active role in working for me, especially the volunteers who talked to voters for me at the early voting polls and on Election Day. I especially appreciate my wife Leslie, who had the spunk necessary to transform just being “ticked off” into what I think was an important letter-to-the-editor. She got so mad I thought she was going to say “durn.”
Other than Leslie, I am indebted to the Caldwell GOP—particularly chairman Ron Roukema—plus my friends Joe Brannock, Carolyn Lawing, Jackie Capps, William McNeill, Hal Boliek and Jeff Austin, all of whom assisted at the polls. I’m sure my friends on the GOP executive committee steered a lot of votes my way.
I am humbled by the vote total I received, 11,284, which is 8,438 more than the second-place total of the successful write-in candidate. As I campaigned, I asked people how they viewed the water quality of Lake Rhodhiss, which has been labeled impaired by the Environmental Protection Agency for about five years. More about that later.
In this year’s balloting, even though I was listed alone on the ballot, the write-in campaigns convinced me that I ought to campaign harder than I might otherwise have to. I talked to people mostly about Lake Rhodhiss, not about the direct business of the SWCD board. If they had questions, though, I tried to answer them as best I could.
I spent about $1,000 this year, compared to about $1,800 in 2006. I won’t reveal my actual campaign strategies, but I did benefit from better “name recognition” this time than I had four years ago.
I never connected myself in public statements or campaign writings to the local Republican Party backing that I received, even in a nonpartisan race, and I never stated that the Caldwell Soil & Water Conservation District could, directly, do anything about the quality of Lake Rhodhiss water. I always referred to Lake Rhodhiss as my personal “pet project.” More about Rhodhiss and the EPA later.
Still, after the election, I found out that a couple of my colleagues on the SWCD board felt I had been “too partisan” in my campaigning for a clearly nonpartisan seat. Their main objection was that I somehow benefited unfairly from being endorsed by the local GOP on the sample ballots that were distributed.
My fellow supervisors even accused me of writing the letter that Leslie sent to the News-Topic, but all I did was to answer a couple of her questions about committees I had served on other than the SWCD board itself.
One even revealed that four years ago, when I won my seat against seven other rivals, that he went to the Board of Elections and changed his registration to “Unaffiliated” after a lifetime of being a “Republican”—because he thought that I was too partisan in my campaigning then.
I say, “bully for him.” He made a free, American choice about his voter registration identity. That’s all I have ever done. I am a Republican; there’s no point in denying my GOP conservative philosophy. The Republican Party is, indeed, a bit overzealous sometimes—as are Democrats—and sometimes, its office-holders have been part of the problem, not the solution.
Nationally, the GOP and the Democrats have overseen too much government growth and too much spending and borrowing, especially in the last 10 years. Four years ago, I may well have been too zealous about my party affiliation in seeking a nonpartisan office. After all, I was a rookie candidate and on the local GOP executive committee as “public affairs director.”
But one learns. Nonetheless, people in Caldwell County want our fiscal “house” put in order and kept that way. If the last several elections have told us anything, they’ve told us that.
As for my colleagues on the SWCD board, I challenged them to find just a single incident in my previous four years on the board, where I have even mentioned the Republican Party in connection with SWCD business. I have been nonpartisan from the get-go in 2006, and I will remain so, because that’s the kind of board the SWCD is and always has been.
Now, as for Lake Rhodhiss, my pet project, and my pledge to voters. Let me repeat what I said in a News-Topic set of questions for its 2010 “Voter Guide”:
I have worked hard to learn as much as I can about water quality issues; still, I am not an “expert.” I did participate in a three-year water quality study of the Lake Rhodhiss watershed, over 454,400 acres, including 19 sub-basins, and the results—including 22 specific recommendations—are posted on the website of the Western Piedmont Council of Governments at www.wpcog.org/rhodhiss/.
Lake Rhodhiss was built by Duke Power 85 years ago to make electricity, not drinking water. The EPA, along with the N.C. Division of Water Quality, found that the reservoir has a problem with pH and eutrophication, or a build-up of nutrients, because it’s getting older. It’s like a human with plaque building up in the arteries, even though the heart is pumping normally. Exacerbating the problem are four wastewater treatment plants owned by Marion, Morganton, Valdese and Lenoir—which, of the total, put two-thirds of the phosphorus and half the nitrogen into the reservoir. Morganton alone puts 20 tons of phosphorus into Rhodhiss annually, according to the 2009 study. Valdese puts in another 10 tons, while the total going into the lake is 52.5 tons.
Operators of the wastewater plants are touchy about this. They say they’ve had to meet clean water standards for 40 years—and that’s true. The EPA requires the states, through agencies like DWQ, to enforce clean water standards on wastewater and other industrial discharge permits—but not on the lake as a whole. The lake is “impaired” under federal law, but the plants—mostly—are meeting their DWQ clean-water standards.
When it comes to government, I am a staunch conservative—and this is another case where “left hand” doesn’t know what “right hand” is doing. Current regulation of the reservoir isn’t working, so long as the federal agency (EPA) says one thing while the state (DWQ) says another. The real question should be, “Does having Rhodhiss as Caldwell’s primary drinking water source cause public health concerns?” If not, then the question should be, “Why is it ‘impaired,’ and what do the feds want us to do about it?”
There are occasional odors, but the water is safe to drink and fish are not dying—not yet. In the longer term, Rhodhiss is still a problem.
When we look at water quality, we need to avoid making it “dirty,” rather than having to clean it up later. It costs more to clean up messes than to prevent them. I would revisit the public health aspects of EPA “impaired” lakes and find ways to improve the efficiency of those four wastewater plants on Rhodhiss. That may require a task force with officials from Burke, Caldwell and McDowell counties, plus Morganton, Marion, Valdese and Lenoir. The “people” need to understand first that there’s a real problem, so they will demand action. That’s what I’m trying to do. Ultimately, the courts may need to get involved, too.
What’s different now, of course, is that 11,284 citizens of Caldwell County voted for me on November 2. They are concerned about the quality of water in Lake Rhodhiss—its taste, its odor, even its color and texture. They think fish are being harmed somehow, and they buy water in grocery stores to drink or brush their teeth.
Their opinions may not be based on facts, but they have their opinions nonetheless. At the very least, Lake Rhodhiss—as a place to fish and as a source of drinking water—has a very serious public relations problem. Someone needs to explain to them, if the lake water isn’t hazardous to their health, or to that of the fish, why does the EPA list Rhodhiss as impaired?
I have recently talked to county commissioners from Caldwell and Burke County, as well as technical people who should know what the long-term answer is, but they will tell you that they don’t. The best hope for a change in the lake’s water quality seems to lie from five years out to 20 years out.
Lake Rhodhiss has wastewater plants which have decades-old technology, although the technology exists right now which will clean them all up in terms of the nutrients causing its impairment. All the wastewater plants, plus industries which discharge into the lake, are, as I write, getting their new 5-year permits from the Division of Water Quality.
A colleague in Burke County, a retired biology professor, says the new permits won’t see a change in water quality standards, but the permits to be issued in 2015 most assuredly will. Still, no one knows if those permits with stricter water quality standards will solve the problems with Lake Rhodhiss drinking water, or if it will take permits from 2020 and beyond.
This colleague assures me that, to clean up the lake now, would require an infusion of millions and millions of dollars in new technology that isn’t likely to be available any time soon as state, federal and local governments try to find new sources of tax revenue as well as new savings. Some estimates for improvements across the state are at hundreds of millions of dollars.
Sharon McBrayer wrote a lengthy article for Media General newspapers (including the Morganton News-Herald and the Hickory Daily Record), outlining this very problem. Other writers have also written about the need for tougher state standards for drinking water. So, this issue is not a secret, and it’s not going away.
If we wait the 15-20 years, however, the price tag will only go up, not down. Meanwhile, when—if at all—will we reach the point at which drinking water from Rhodhiss does become hazardous to human health? Of all the “things” county officials have to spend taxpayer dollars on, how many, I wonder, rank ahead of having good, clean, safe, public drinking water?
If the Rhodhiss drinking water really is OK, then local politicians need to address the 11,284 people who voted for me, who won’t drink it because they think it’s nasty.
County commissioners in Burke and Caldwell counties are not warm to my idea of having water quality experts sit down on a local committee to discuss the common problems posed by Lake Rhodhiss. Their attitude is, “we can’t afford to clean up the lake, anyhow, so why bother? We’ll just wait until the EPA, the DWQ or some other agency says we have to?”
My point, simply, is that waiting 15-20 years may make people sick in the mean time, and that it will cost more than it would cost to clean up the lake now. I think, if two counties work together, they can find some sources of federal grant money to at least begin the cleanup process and, perhaps, can identify priorities and start cleaning up the worst problems first.
In the interim of the next 15-20 years, should I actually live that long, my new “pet project” may become getting county commissioners to start the cleanup sooner rather than later.
Dennis A. Benfield
Hudson
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