As Hurricane Helene fomented in the Caribbean, it seemed likely that Great Smoky Mountains National Park would take a direct hit. The storm reached Category 4 before slamming Florida’s Gulf Coast, then headed north toward the Smokies. 

Hurricane Helene caused great devastation throughout much of Western North Carolina and farm fields were not spared. There are reports of impacts to fields in all landscape positions. This situation calls for a vigilant approach to soil and crop management that includes assessment on a field-by-field basis. 

Macon County approved revisions to its soil erosion and sedimentation control ordinance despite an outpouring of opposition from the public — so much so that not everyone who had signed up to speak on the issue at the Aug. 13 meeting was able to do so. 

After an outpouring of opposition from members of the public over the course of several county commission meetings, Macon County Commissioners chose to table a vote on the flood damage prevention, soil erosion and sedimentation control and water supply watershed protection ordinances for meetings over the next several months. 

More than two years after flooding along the Pigeon River and its tributaries killed half a dozen people and destroyed businesses, cars and homes from its headwaters near the Blue Ridge Parkway on down through the towns of Canton and Clyde, contractors are set to begin some of the most intensive debris removal operations in Haywood County since the floods of 2004. 

Jackson County commissioners voted unanimously Sept. 15 to ask for the N.C. Association of County Commissioners’ support for state legislation to give counties more control over state and federal construction projects within their borders.

Despite multiple outstanding environmental violations, a new student housing complex located on Western Carolina University’s Millennial Campus off Killian Road welcomed its first group of tenants this month. 

The Millennial Apartments project overseen by Zimmer Development Corporation has racked up seven notices of violations of state standards since breaking ground on the project last summer in Cullowhee.

A highway construction project in Jackson County has come under public scrutiny for muddying the Tuckasegee River.

Erosion control measures have failed to stop mud and sediment from running off the construction site, into creeks and onward to the river during heavy rains. While the highway department has admitted to some runoff problems at the site, it claims it is doing a good job overall.

An earth-moving project that has left a large, visible hillside on Russ Avenue in Waynesville denuded, gouged and barren could continue into the indefinite future despite pressure from the state environmental agency monitoring the site to bring it to a close.