The hearing was amazing. The crowd was so large, it over filled the 119 seat capacity meeting room and the Commissioners had to move everybody down the street to the county court house to accommodate all the people who attended. Even then, the 300 capacity court room was full and people were standing.

Removing the high quality waters designation from the Watauga River would open it up to more pollution from waste water discharges, high density development and landfills. The reclassification would have long term, profoundly negative impacts on the water quality of the Watauga for generations to come.

Citizen comments were limited to 3 minutes. More than 74 people provided comments for almost two hours. A diverse crowd attended providing fabulous public hearing testimony. There were democrats, republicans, independents, farmers, kayakers, anglers, artists, engineers, teachers, professors, plumbers, construction workers, people that work at home, outdoor recreation business owners, retired people, students and more who all spoke in strong opposition to the Beech Mountain water grab.

“If the Watauga County Commissioners rubber stamped the Beech Mountain request, almost none of the people who own land along the river or the people who swim, fish and boat in the Watauga would have known about this attempt to strip the river of its protections,” advised Watauga Riverkeeper, Donna Lisenby.

At the end of the public comment period, each commissioner spoke and thanked the pubic for attending.  A motion was made to deny approval of the Beech Mountain reclassification request and water withdrawal from the Watauga River. It was seconded and all commissioners voted in favor of the motion. The capacity crowd then rose to their feet and gave the Watauga County Commission a standing ovation.