The times-news. [volume] (Hendersonville, N.C.) 1927-current, 1933-11-10
THE PROPOSED FRENCH BROAD
VALLEY DEVELOPMENT /

VALLEY DENELOPMENl
The public meeting of citizens OF Hen
derson. Transatlantic and BuncOmbe, as
sembled at the courthouse Thursday eve
ming, did not accomplish much in cOIlSlo-
ering the French Broad Valley develop-
,,,ont ,,roioct hnt # was nrobablv as muck
90 ,,.os 70 no ovnacted Of a FIRST meeting.
-, ,,,,,,,o,,,,,+ Oh a;,roo o., ond sacratay,, were
,1oo+od ord . committee of investigation
,,.o, orno;r+ad IF tho committee does its
,,.o,I- offioio,,+I, wa shall shortly have in
hand all the information obtainable IN au-
vance about the proposal to build SUI
aoe and mower dam on the French Broad
President A E. Morgan of the IenheS-
ee Valley Authority, in his ADDRESS al
Asheville few weeks ago, made " plain
that the Authority has no cOncreFe pIai'9
for dovoIonmnnt in the French BROAD Val
ley. In fact, if the Authority has any Ten
+otive MANS President Morgan did not
make the fact known. President Morgan
did say in his public address that the Au-
thority desired to cooperate with the pee
pie of this section of North Carolina and
would be pleased to have suggestions as t.
what can be done in development work IN
the section.
Now, the first fact to be kept in view IN
considering this proposition, is that the
only project that has ever been proposed
for the French Broad Valley is the con-
stfhction of dam in the Bent Creek vicin-
itY,in Buncombe county, which would COW
er ssome valley land in Buncombe county
with water and would cover nearly all the
valley lands of Henderson ano 1ransyl'
vania county with water.
The engineers plans for this dam were
m$de by War Department engineers of the
federal government several years ago, be-
fore the Tennessee Valley Authority was
created by Congress; but, it is true that
they were made in connection with the
plans for the development at Muscle Shoals
and in view of the effect of this French
Broad development on the outcome at Mus
cls Shoals.
Che audience gathered at the court
house Thursday evening was disappointed
byAthe fact that Engineer D. E. Burchard
made very little reference to these eng;-
neering plans, and did not explain them in
detail, although he did make the statement
that ne had the plans-in fact, appeared
to have the plans in a roll on the table as
heEwas speaking. That was the informa-
ton in which the people of Henderson and
Pennsylvania counties are interested. We
can all readily understand that big dam
onSthe French Broad will flood an extern,
sive section of this and Pennsylvania coun-
ty,, The people are interested in knowing
just how much country would be flooded
and how much of the two counties woul1
be left above water.
Mr.. Burchard made the statement that
the dam proposed in the plans of the army
engineers would be 125 feet in height, bui
advanced his own opinion that the dam, i
constructed, should be 80 feet higher, OF
200 feet in height. Lacking accurate alti
tude figures, Mr.. Burchard did not attemp
to go further with the discussion. How
ever, such figures must be obtainable from
some government department, as the in
formation of The Times-News is that al
this section has been measured for altitud
by the engineers.
While not certain atkat9ihis figures lar
coi4sss.uR Prof. ST. E Nssasrzef Bxeyasd.i ia