Share
As a four-year drought parched North Carolina into the middle of 2002, then-Gov. Mike Easley and his administration called it a major disaster. The governor urged people everywhere to save water, and he imposed stiff restrictions.
Except at Easley's exclusive private golf club in northeastern Chatham County.
New records and interviews show that Old Chatham Golf Club pumped millions of gallons from a creek leading to Jordan Lake, diverting water from one of the region's major drinking sources to help keep the greens alive.
The records show that a state water resources chief questioned the pumping but that higher-level officials - including at the Governor's Office - got involved as the club sought the water.
It all took place a year after golf club leaders provided Easley with a major benefit: Club directors had voted in 2001 to waive the governor's monthly membership dues. That saved Easley about $50,000 while he was in office, a break he did not reveal on financial disclosure forms.
The pumping for the golf club has not been previously disclosed, officials acknowledged in interviews, and records from the time reflect concern and discussion about what would happen if the public found out.
"This is just a total shock to me that they would give up that water then," said Lynn Featherstone, a board member of the Haw River Assembly, an advocacy group that monitors Jordan Lake issues. "That was a very bad year. ... This is the first we've heard of it."
Easley, a Democrat, finished his second term in January. He is now the subject of state and federal criminal investigations into a range of activities that include his family's use of vehicles, free flights, a job he helped create for his wife at N.C. State University and a deep discount he took on a coastal land purchase.
Easley has denied wrongdoing. He did not respond to interview requests.
Club's president asks for pumping
In spring 2002, the drought deepened, generating headlines and worries about water use across broad areas of the state. By March, the drought was labeled the worst in half a century. By early June, towns began hunting for water scofflaws. Easley advised residents to turn off the faucet when brushing their teeth.
On June 3, the golf club's president, Stuart Frantz of Raleigh, made a written request to pump water from Northeast Creek.
Frantz lived a few doors from Easley's house in Raleigh.
Their club boasts many prominent businessmen among its 300 members, including Charles Sanders, the former Glaxo chief and state lottery chairman, and state Sen. Tony Rand, the majority leader in that chamber.
The club's request for water eventually was considered by local, state and federal agencies that had different oversight roles.
The state owns the water in Jordan Lake. But through a lengthy process, the water is allocated to local governments, such as Cary and Chatham County, which pay for the water and have infrastructure to tap it.
Moreover, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers manages the lake. And the golf club wanted permission to pump from a spot on federal property about a mile from the course.
Frantz, who did not return numerous phone messages, routed the request to the Chatham County commissioners, who unanimously agreed June 3 to let the club pump as much as 450,000 gallons a day for irrigation for up to three months. The water would be counted against the county's daily allocation from Jordan Lake. State law considers pumping more than 100,000 gallons a day to be a major withdrawal.
The county at that time was not drawing all of the 4 million gallons per day it was allowed; there was no debate among commissioners about the request, according to minutes of the commission meeting and an interview with County Manager Charlie Horne.
Horne, who brought the item up at the meeting while giving regular updates, said he can barely recall anything about the deal.
In exchange for the water, the golf club paid the county $10,000.
River basin chief objects
When the club contacted the Army Corps for approval, the federal agency immediately wanted guidance from the state, records show.
On June 6, the golf club's engineering consultant contacted the state's river basin management chief, Tom Fransen, saying the Army Corps "indicated that you would need to be involved with the authorization to proceed."
Fransen, now deputy director of the state's Division of Water Resources, called the Chatham County manager the same day, according to the records. He also called the golf club's contact.
Fransen expressed concerns and discouraged both from proceeding, according to the records. Fransen would send a follow-up e-mail message to the Chatham County manager with charts and graphs showing depleting lake levels and record-low stream flows and warning that the "severe extended drought" meant all users of water should be "making the best use of the resource."
"Is using water from Jordan Lake to water a golf course a good use of the water?" Fransen asked. "When we are looking at reducing water quality releases, it does not look good to be supplying a special request for golf course watering."
There was other activity that day regarding Chatham's water, but the timing and specifics aren't clear because the people involved said they can't remember everything.
After Fransen questioned the golf club's request, he was contacted by higher-ups, according to a memo in the state's files. Jim Mead, a state environmental engineer, wrote the memo June 26 and said that the Governor's Office had contacted Dempsey Benton, the No. 2 person at the state environmental agency, about the situation three weeks earlier.
Benton was appointed by Easley to his post in January 2001.
Benton heard from an unspecified person in the Governor's Office and then called Fransen, according to the memo.
"Dempsey Benton talked with Tom about this in response to a call from the governor's office," Mead wrote. "It was left that the ultimate decision was up to Chatham County since it was their water allocation. You should speak with Tom for more details on this."
Fransen said in an interview that he can't remember those details but that someone on behalf of the club probably appealed directly to the governor or his office and Benton was asked to check on it. He said he talked to Benton frequently then.
"I don't remember any pressure," Fransen said.
Benton said nothing about the memo rings a bell.
Mead said he doesn't remember the specifics, either. He also wrote in the memo that the golf club's developers "have connections in high places." Both Mead and Fransen said in interviews that the golf club had made it clear that the purpose of the pumping was to save the club members' investment in grass.
All of the officials involved agreed that the state could have taken a policy position at that moment to prevent the club from pumping in a drought. Some said a denial could have given the golf club grounds for a legal fight because state laws are generally limited in regulating withdrawals.
Fransen and others said legislation passed after the 2007 drought has given the state greater powers in a drought, and such a request likely would not be approved in a similar circumstance now. The golf club has also added a 10 million-gallon pond to expand its on-site capacity.
John Morris was then head of the state Division of Water Resources. He said he doesn't recall the memo that was sent to him detailing the interest from higher-ups in state government, or getting pressure to help the golf course.
"You could certainly contest whether that was a good use of water at that point in history," said Morris, who is now retired. "But basically, it was their water that was allocated to them."
On July 10, Morris wrote to the Army Corps official at Jordan Lake, Michael Hosey, that the state had "no objection" to the golf club's use as long as Chatham County approved.
Hosey said in an interview the state agreement cleared the way.
Reduce water use, Easley says
Two days later, Easley issued a controversial directive that local water systems and businesses, including in Chatham County, take quick steps to reduce their water use by 20 percent. Easley spent the next week urging people to save water, including during a visit to a farm in Knightdale onJuly 17 where he called the drought a major disaster and sought federal aid.
But Old Chatham Golf Club's water was not affected by Easley's water-saving directive.
"The Old Chatham water usage is because of the drought, and would not have occurred if the drought had not occurred," wrote John Sutherland, another state water supervisor at the time after considering whether the club should obey the 20 percent restriction. The club also got help from another part of Easley's administration: The state Department of Transportation agreed to let Old Chatham run a pipeline along the state's right-of-way to an irrigation pond on the golf course's property.
The pumping at Old Chatham began July 18. Over the next two weeks, the club took about 6 million gallons that otherwise would have gone into Jordan Lake, according to pumping logs the club submitted to state and federal officials.
It rained in that same period, and the lake level barely dropped while the golf course pumped, records show.
But the state remained concerned. On Aug. 15, Easley directed all state agencies to stop "nonessential" water use, including grass watering, saying the state should "lead by example."
A tropical storm swept up from the gulf coast in September and then more rains came, replenishing lakes and rivers and breaking the drought.
