State should sink money into water.

• Author: Martin, Edward
• Position: TAR HEEL TATTLER

To Bill Holman, it's what you can't see at Falls Lake that shows why North Carolina needs a billion-dollar bond issue for its water systems. The director of the state's Clean Water Management Trust Fund is talking about the water supply for half a million residents of Raleigh and environs. What's missing, at least in the lake's upper reaches, is water.

Two years after the N.C. Rural Economic Development Center launched a project to assess water needs, much of North Carolina is locked in drought. Meteorologists categorize the Triangle's as severe. The first three months of this year made up Raleigh's driest first quarter on record.

When it comes to water, North Carolina is a paradox (cover story, October 2001). Streams and rivers wrinkle the face of the state, lakes pock it, and an ocean brushes its cheek. But water is not evenly distributed, demand is soaring, neighboring states want to tap Tar Heel supplies, and some sources are overtaxed. With spring lawns turning brown and temperatures rising, the center has released a plan, Water 2030, calling for the bonds. Holman, whose organization was created by the General Assembly in 1996 to help local government meet water needs, says the bad news is that even $1 billion might not be enough to do what needs to be done.

Others agree. "In 1998, when we had the $800 million bond issue, we were meeting...