News

County eyes less ambitious solution for Edneyville sewer

Michael Edney and Jay Egolf confer during a meeting of the Board of Commissioners on Nov. 19.

By AMY MCCRAW and BILL MOSS Lightning Staff, Published: November 25, 2025

Henderson County commissioners devoted yet another long discussion to the Clear Creek sewer project last week, hours after state Rep. Jennifer Balkcom blasted them for making “incorrect statements” about the Legislature’s move to shift a grant from that project to the county-owned Etowah sewer system.

After the state removed a $12.7 million for the Edneyville sewer line, commissioners are confronted with a ticking clock to salvage the project. They seem to be leaning toward a scaled-back version of the previously approved $17 million project.

“We’ve got a muddy situation to start with so hopefully we’re trying to make it less muddy for you,” County Engineer Marcus Jones told commissioners. Yet the ensuing discussion did little to clear up exactly how the county would proceed.

After he and Commissioner Rebecca McCall met with Balkcom, state Sen. Tim Moffitt and a state Department of Environmental Quality official on Nov. 13, Commissioner Michael Edney offered the opinion that both the Edneyville project and Etowah sewer system repairs could be funded by state grants.

“I think bottom line, all things being equal, both projects are going to be able to be funded, it sounds like, and based on that, I think we’re in good shape,” Edney said. “I think that meeting led to a lot more information sharing than we had done before.”

County Manager John Mitchell said the board would need to act quickly — either in its next meeting, on Dec. 1, or no later than Jan. 5 — to authorize a revised contract for a reduced-scope project serving Edneyville Elementary School and Camp Judea, both of which are served by obsolete septic systems.

“It seems to me, we’ve got a little bit of time, not a whole lot,” Chairman Bill Lapsley said. “I would like to use that time as best we can before we make a final decision. In my mind, we need to let our elected officials know that we would appreciate very much if they find a way to replace this $12.7 million appropriation with some other funds from wherever they can get it.”

The board also directed staff to meet with the low bidder for the original sewer plan and negotiate a price for the scaled-back project, which has a cost estimate of $6.6 million.

“Let’s get it in writing, whatever that number is,” Lapsley said.

The meeting last Wednesday came less than 12 hours after Balkcom, in a late-night email, called out commissioners for their comments criticizing the Legislature’s action in October to move a $12.7 million Edneyville sewer grant to the county-owned Etowah system, which the county acknowledges needs major repairs.

“Sen. Moffitt and I are requesting that the Board clarify the public record regarding the status of the state appropriated  $12.7 million,” Balkcom wrote. A “Hendersonville Lightning article repeatedly stated that Henderson County ‘lost a $12.7 million grant,’ that the county ‘would have to give the money back,’ and that the project ‘cannot meet the deadline,’ resulting in the county ‘losing the grant money entirely.’ These statements are incorrect.”

Balkcom’s email to commissioners came after a meeting on Nov. 13 in which a state Department of Environmental Quality official clarified that $12.7 million in state funds would be allocated for the Etowah sewer repairs and that the county could still move ahead with the Clear Creek project using an American Rescue Plan grant — the pot of money with a December 2026 spending deadline.
“Since the federal obligation deadline for ARPA State Fiscal Recovery Fund has already passed (December 31, 2024), we cannot commit ARPA funding towards the Etowah wastewater project,” Shadi Eskaf, director of DEQ’s Division of Water Infrastructure, wrote in an email sent at 5:51 p.m. Nov. 18. “The Etowah project will be funded out of state dollars that are not ARPA. … The Clear Creek Sewer Project, if it continues forward, will remain funded out of ARPA dollars and must continue to comply with the timelines associated with the project,” which include a Dec. 31, 2026, deadline to spend the money, Eskaf added.

Last month commissioners approved a $14 million construction contract for a project that would have run sewer lines along U.S. 64 from the WNC Justice Academy to North Henderson High School, where it would connect with the Hendersonville city sewer system. It’s that contract, which has been authorized but not signed, that the county could renegotiate to complete the scaled down project to serve Edneyville Elementary School, the only school in the county not on public sewer.