4.5 River Basins
F I GURE
4.15
Location of the French Broad River Basin
agricultural and developed lands are concentrated within the river valleys, though residen- tial development is occurring on increasingly steeper slopes. Te basin contains all or portions of eight counties (Avery, Buncombe, Haywood, Henderson, Madison, Mitchell, Transylvania, and Yancey), and all or portions of 27 munici- palities, including Asheville, Brevard, Hot Springs, and Waynesville. Figure 4.15 depicts the geographic location of the basin. 4.5.8.2 Aquatic Resource Conditions Water quality is generally good for areas where data are available; however, there are prob- lems (described below) in parts of the basin, and the lack of data for nearly half the basin provides an unclear assessment of overall water quality. It is important to note that all waters in the state are rated as impaired based on a state-wide fsh consumption advisory for mercury contamination. Tere are more than 4,700 miles of freshwater streams in the basin that have been classifed by NCDWR for best uses (NCDWR 2015d) . Table 4.56 provides information on water quality classifcations and use-support ratings in the basin.
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2015 NC Wildlife Action Plan
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