20080880 Ver 1_Public Comments_20080801 (2)

cc: Cliffs application to USACE # 200701619
Subject: cc: Cliffs application to USACE # 200701619
From: Dede Styles <[e-mail]>
Date: Fri, 01 Aug 2008 00:47:28 -0400
To: [e-mail]
Dear Ms. Beckwith,
Re. The Cliffs at High Carolina application ro USACE # 200701619
I live in the Lytle Cove area of Swannanoa, directly downhill from the Cliff's
proposed golf course on Flat Top Mountain. My concerns about the water use and
run-off from the golf course are three fold. First, my mother's house and my
sister's house are both served by a well as are the homes of all my neighbors. I
understand that the Cliffs plans to connect to Asheville public water supply to
serve the residences in their development. But I don't believe they plan to use
Asheville water for their golf course. I know that in the mountains it is hard to
tell if any two or more wells are fed from the same underground source. So I worry
that there is no way to determine if our wells are going to be affected until they
run dry. I am also concerned about the possibility of chemical run-off from the golf
course contaminating our wells.
My second concern is about chemical run-off contaiminating my farm pond which is
fed from a stream coming directly from Flat Top Mountain. I use water from the pond
to water my vegetable garden. If the pond becomes contaminated then so would my
garden and the food that I grow there.
My third concern is a little more unusual. I am a heritage dyer in the Southern
Highlands Craft Guild. The focus of my work is keeping alive, by demonstrating and
teaching, the natural dye processes that would have been commonly used here in the
Appalachian Mountains by the early settlers. I use plants and other natural
materials to obtain a wide range of beautiful colors. A good source of clean,
untreated water is very important to my work. When I started my work thirty years
ago the stream that feeds my pond almost always ran clear and steady. It was only
muddy in times of very heavy rain. Then people built houses and roads in a
development called Alpine Mountain which is up hill from me. For a time my stream
became muddy all the time and our pond began to fill up with silt. During this time
I had to use water from the stream that comes down through Blue Ridge Assembly.
While that water was almost always clear I was never able to produce a good blue
dye using that water, even though I used exactly the same process that I had used
with the water from my stream. After ten years the soil has settled enough that my
stream has cleared up a lot. Although it is still cloudy, I can use it in my dye
process. Once again I can make the lovely blues and greens that I had made in the
past. I know that only a very tiny change in the chemical content of the water I
use in my dye process can make a big change in the way the color turns out. So I
really don't want my stream to get muddy again. I don't want it to go dry because
the Cliffs is using so much water to water their golf course. And I really, really
don't want some chemical run-off, even a tiny amount, messing up my dyes.
The families who have lived in Lytle Cove for years don't have much money. Our
greatest treasures are the beauty of the natural world that surrounds us and our
good clean water. Please help us keep those things that are so important to us.
Sincerely,
Dede Styles
376 Lytle Cove Road
Swannanoa. NC 28778
828-686-3854
cc:Cyndi Kroly--NC Division of Water
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