View of OWASA as apathetic to local residents' concerns
Despite the other viable alternatives, OWASA officials opted to build a reservoir in Cane Creek. Holt blames this OWASA's disregard on being obstinate and on their low opinion of Chapel Hill and Cane Creek residents.
Citing this Excerpt
Oral History Interview with Nancy Holt, October 27, 1985. Interview K-0010. Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007) in the Southern Oral History Program Collection, Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Full Text of the Excerpt
- FRANCES E. WEBB:
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What do you know about the alternatives that they rejected?
- NANCY HOLT:
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They rejected the alternatives of the - using the Jordan as a water
source. And I thought it was awfully arrogant. They said that the people
of Chapel Hill were too good to drink the water out of there. Well they
should - the people in Bynum ought to come over here and smacked
'em. Cause Bynum's been drinking it for damn
years. The, the long-term planning should be communities pulling
together and sharing resourses of a water supply. Not putting these
random temporary water supplies in a community and destroying it. Just
look what the Jordon - how many thousands of acres is available there.
It's time for people to start, the planners, to start
thinking in long-term instead of short-term. Now if this were - I think
one of the reasons that everybody got so angry is that they made it
blatantly clear that this was only a short-term water supply. They
weren't even looking at it over the long haul at all. So you
disrupt twenty year - I mean two hundred years of
history, two hundred years of family farms for a temporary solution to a
problem that has long-term ramifications. And they have not - they
refused to look down the road at what their long-term needs were. And
because of the delays in court and all, and our fighting back - now the
Jordan is well able to supply the water to Chapel Hill. And I had heard
something one time that Chapel Hill says now, now you just set - to the
people at the Jordan - now you set aside so many million gallons of
water because we may want it. After this? And it, it just seems like
blatant disregard, for the people of Chapel Hill as well as the people
from Cane Creek.
- FRANCES E. WEBB:
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What about the University Lake alternative?
- NANCY HOLT:
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The thing that really ticked me off about that is that some man offered
to dredge it out, free, to get all the silt out. All he wanted was that
silt. He offered to dredge University Lake so it could accomodate more
water and therefore alleviate some of Chapel Hill's needs.
Free. And he was turned down flat.
- FRANCES E. WEBB:
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Why, why do you think he was?
- NANCY HOLT:
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Because this was their plan. One of the things I've learned in
business, and I've run across two other people like these
folks - they don't hear anything except the things that they
want to hear. It's tunnel vision at its finest. These are the
people that you put in charge of projects. Because they don't
hear any adverse reasoning; they don't hear anything else. If
you went to a meeting with …