Craggy Dam Debate Grows as Groups Push Removal, MSD Eyes Hydropower

The French Broad River flows freely for 75 miles from its headwaters in Transylvania County before meeting the more than 120-year-old Craggy Dam in Woodfin, and a growing coalition of organizations wants that obstruction gone. The debate sharpened recently when Metropolitan Sewerage District staff openly criticized dam-removal proponents at an MSD board meeting, drawing a sharp line between the utility's financial interests and the coalition's vision for the river.

The Craggy Coalition, which includes American Rivers, MountainTrue, RiverLink, Sierra Club, Southern Environmental Law Center and American Whitewater, is pushing MSD to evaluate removal before committing to an estimated $3 million in repairs the district is considering as soon as this spring. The groups are not demanding immediate demolition; they want an independent, technically credible valuation of the hydropower facility and a transparent process that considers selling it to a qualified third party.

"The Craggy Dam in Woodfin actually increases the levels of flooding," said Erin McCombs, director of American Rivers, who added that any path forward would require both parties to conduct a collaborative study to determine the dam's value.

MSD general manager Tom Hartye laid out the utility's case in a written statement: "MSD's Hydroelectric facility provides 45% of the District's electricity needed to treat wastewater. This clean energy reduces the amount of electricity needed from the 'Grid' and thus reduces our carbon footprint and the emission of Green House Gas(GHG). This also saves the District's customers between $300,000 and $600,000 per year in energy costs." Aging infrastructure and recent outages have forced MSD to weigh whether those savings justify continued investment.

Kevin Colburn, an Asheville-area resident and national stewardship director of American Whitewater who has worked on more than 100 dam-removal efforts nationally, framed the broader pattern. "It's usually a reckoning with future costs," Colburn said. "It's that the costs of modernizing a dam or making it stable through the future exceeds the benefit."

The economic stakes extend well beyond MSD's energy budget. An independent study conducted before Tropical Storm Helene estimated the French Broad River watershed generates roughly $3.8 billion annually for the regional economy, much of it tied to tourism and recreation. A newer report concluded that removing Craggy Dam would reduce flooding risks, open a stretch of river currently blocked to boaters and kayakers, improve water quality and benefit native fish species.

The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law earmarked $800 million in federal funding for dam removal nationally, which prompted American Rivers to meet with MSD and Woodfin officials in 2022 and agree to commission a study on the dam's future. That process has since stalled against MSD's institutional resistance.

MountainTrue is calling on the public to email the MSD board and demand a process that evaluates all options before the district commits to repairs it may not be able to reverse. Any sale, the coalition stresses, must protect MSD operations and ratepayers throughout any transition. MountainTrue's Land of Sky office is located at 347 Depot St. in Asheville for those seeking to engage directly with the organization.

With the repair decision potentially arriving this spring, the window for that broader conversation is narrowing.