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Catawba River
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Catawba River is a tributary of the Wateree River in the U.S. states of North Carolina and South Carolina. The river is approximately 220 miles (350 km) long. It rises in the Appalachian Mountains and drains into Piedmont, and is impounded through series of reservoirs for flood control and hydroelectricity.
It rises in the Blue Ridge Mountains in western McDowell County, North Carolina, approximately 20 miles (30 km) east of Asheville. It flows ENE, passing north of Morganton, then southeast through the Lake Norman reservoir. From Lake Norman it flows south, passing west of Charlotte, then flowing through the Mountain Island Lake and Lake Wylie reservoirs, where it forms approximately 10 miles (15 km) of the border between North Carolina and South Carolina. It flows into northern South Carolina, passing east of Rock Hill, then through Fishing Creek Reservoir near Great Falls, and then into the Lake Wateree reservoir, approximately 30 miles (50 km) northeast of Columbia. Downstream from Lake Wateree, it becomes the Wateree River.
As of 2006 the river is at the center of a controversy. Residents of Cabarrus County, North Carolina feel that they have the right to pump water from the river to help keep up with the demands of the county's increasing population. The Cabarrus plan calls for taking water from the Catawba and pumping the cleaned waste water into the Yadkin River, east of Cabarrus. Residents of the Catawba watershed oppose and have protested this plan. Residents of the watershed (which includes Charlotte, North Carolina) feel that the plan would ruin the river, which is vital to the economies of several towns, including Valdese, North Carolina. Valdese held a town hall meeting on the subject during which Catawba officials were heavily booed. They did not fare much better in another meeting held later in Charlotte. [1]
Proponents of the plan say that Cabarrus needs the water, while detractors say it will ruin the Catawba because it would not have enough water to withstand a severe drought, not uncommon in the Charlotte metropolitan area.