News

Edneyville sewer project in jeopardy after Legislature deletes grant

By Bill Moss, Published: November 3, 2025

Henderson County commissioners will have to decide how to salvage the Edneyville sewer project, which was defunded last week by the state Legislature — or whether to go forward at all.

An idea years in the making, the project is already under contract, thanks to a vote of commissioners at their last meeting. Now, it has suddenly lost a $12 million state grant to cover the cost. Meeting last week to adopt a mini-budget, the General Assembly inserted language in the statewide bill that shifted the grant from the Clear Creek sewer line to the Etowah sewer system, which is now county owned and needs major repairs.

“They really stuck it to us,” County Commission Chair Bill Lapsley said. Back in August, Lapsley, Commissioner Rebecca McCall and County Manager John Mitchell met with state Rep. Jennifer Balkcom about a proposed interlocal agreement between the county and the city of Hendersonville over water and sewer extension policies.

“We reached that agreement, but one of the conditions in that agreement was that the General Assembly would codify these agreements so that neither the city or the county could just randomly terminate the agreement,” Lapsley said. “When we sent that to Jennifer, she objected, and she said, ‘I don't like this.” And so, (we said) ‘well, why not?’ ‘Well, I just don't like it.’”

Then last Tuesday night, County Attorney Russ Burrell, who “follows the General Assembly every time they meet and reads everything they do,” spotted the sentence buried in the budget bill that defunded the Clear Creek sewer project.

Lapsley said the Legislature’s action puts the county in an impossible bind.

He said he wanted Balkcom to know: “Do you understand if we don't have this state money to do Edneyville Elementary School, the sewer system is going to fail, and we're going to have to close down the school.”

And because the state grant was American Rescue Plan money appropriated by Congress, it has to be spent by December 2026.

“If we put it on pause, we'll never get Clear Creek done by next December, and so then we will have to give the money back to Raleigh and Raleigh will have to give it back to Washington because there's that deadline,” Lapsley said.

Balkcom was unaware, too, Lapsley said, that the county believes it is eligible for a FEMA grant to pay for the Etowah sewer repairs.

“We have every indication that we're going to be able to get FEMA flood money to rebuild the portions of the Etowah sewer system so it won't cost the county anything out there,” he said.

Although Balkcom did not respond on Monday to the Lightning’s request for an interview about the sewer decision, state Sen. Tim Moffitt defended the Legislature's decision as sound policy.

“When the county decided to take over an Etowah sewer system widely known for its failures and discharge violations, they’re now responsible for its repairs,” he said. “So the General Assembly’s position is fix what is the most imminent problem, which is Etowah. ... I have come to find out there are a lot of special interests in Edneyville that are upset about this but we have been overwhelmed by comments from people that don’t want Chimney Rock Road to turn into another Four Seasons Boulevard.”

Commissioners are scheduled to discuss the situation during their meeting tonight. One option could be to borrow the money to pay for the work already under contract; commissioners in their Oct. 15 meeting voted to award a $14 million contract for sewer line construction.

“Do we pony up the money from local funds to keep this Edneyville sewer project going, which we could do,” Lapsley said. “But if we borrow the money, then we're going to have debt service,” meaning property taxpayers, not sewer ratepayers or the state grant, would be paying for a sewer project serving only a fraction of the county.

“One of the concerns that I have had from day 1 was that there's a limited number of customers on this system,” including the elementary school, Camp Judea, the WNC Justice Academy, the Edneyville Fire Department and library, Griffin’s store and the Edneyville General Store. “The big customer we were hoping to get on was Blacksmith Run because there's about 100 houses in there but that is a privately owned system and they didn't want to connect."

“If we put (the debt payment) all on the customers of the sewer system, to make the system self-supporting, the people's sewer bills would be out of this world,” Lapsley said. “That's why the grant was so important. It enabled us to do it and keep the sewer rate low because there's no debt service.”

If the county wants to proceed with the Clear Creek sewer line, Moffitt said, it can.

“We didn’t cancel the project,” he said. “We just moved the purpose of the state money. Henderson County is blessed to have a good credit rating” and the ability to borrow money for the Edneyville project if it chooses.