What is the highest and best use of the water from the Yadkin River?
The top priority for this water should be to sustain life. However, that is not the case under the current system, where the Yadkin River’s water to power Alcoa’s hydroelectric operations occurs before treating the water for drinking, plant irrigation and other uses by residential and business customers in Stanly County. Also, users of drinking water from the river have to pay a total of tens of millions of dollars for it, but the privilege of the hydro power supplied by the river’s water costs Alcoa nothing. This process where a private monopoly receives first-use preference over the county’s water customers exists even during a drought. The North Carolina Water Rights Coalition believes the process would work better and be more responsive to citizens if leaders agree that providing drinking water for residents is a more important use of the Yadkin River than generating power that would profit outside interests.
