Boone will clean up water-intake with $500,000 state grant

By Scott Nicholson

The town of Boone has received an expected $500,000 grant from the North Carolina Rural Center to remove sedimentation near a water intake site on Winkler’s Creek.

The intake is the town’s secondary raw water intake site but became the primary intake site during last year’s drought. Sedimentation accumulated from floods and activities on upstream park lands have reduced the capacity of water that can be withdrawn from the intake pool. 

Restoring the pool behind the dam will provide access to an estimated 12 million gallons on Winkler’s Creek and to a 60 million gallon reservoir upstream. 

The town is permitted to withdraw a total of 3 million gallons per day from either of its two intake sites. The Winkler’s Creek site is currently only used about once a month and is primarily a back-up intake. The town is also seeking a permit for a new intake site in Fleetwood to draw an additional 4 million gallons per day.

Watauga County has also been granted $30,650 for the Water Capital Improvement Program Plan.  The grant will pay to examine the infrastructure of the area’s water and sewer systems to find ways to improve capacity, efficiency and product.