Dozens of protesters from counties along the Virginia border traveled to Raleigh on Tuesday to make their opposition heard after North Carolina lawmakers floated a bill that opponents fear could threaten their drinking water access — as well as their county leaders’ ability to make local decisions for their communities.
Hours later, Republican legislative leaders said they had heard those complaints, along with concerns from members of the legislature and local city or county governments, and decided to kill the proposal that had generated the outcry.
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It was a rare instance of leaders in the state House and Senate agreeing to pass a provision into law, only to reverse course in the face of public opposition. Some critics compared it to the “shrimpgate” saga a year ago — when lawmakers backtracked on efforts to restrict shrimping in near-coastal waters after hundreds of fishermen and their supporters descended on the legislature.
The proposal in question would’ve created an exemption in state law, giving Franklin County unlimited power to buy or condemn any piece of property it wants to control in Vance, Halifax and Warren counties, even if local leaders in those counties aren’t on board.
“The sovereignty of our communities is extremely important,” said Rep. Brian Cohn, D-Vance, who opposes the bill, during a press conference with some of the protesters on Tuesday. “The right to self govern — the right for you, me, as individual citizens, to be able to elect our leaders and shape the future and progress of our own respective communities — it's a long standing tradition.”
House Speaker Destin Hall later announced he was killing the proposal, despite having backed its introduction last week, after members of his own Republican caucus also began voicing concerns.
“That won't be in the new conference report,” Hall told reporters Tuesday evening. “Hearing the debate, members were talking about it. … The caucus felt, ‘Better to give them a little bit more time to try to work it out.’ And I hope they do.”
While the bill was broadly written and made no mention of why the fast-growing Raleigh suburbs in Franklin County should be given such massive power to reshape neighboring counties to its will, supporters and opponents alike said it’s all about drinking water.
Franklin County wants more of it to keep up its rapid growth. But it has to buy drinking water from other towns and counties, and its leaders aren’t happy with the prices being charged by its main supplier, a water plant on the Virginia border owned by the City of Henderson and other municipalities.
Franklin County leaders predict that in the next several decades, their population will more than double and their water needs will more than triple. Giving Franklin County the power to buy or condemn land in its neighboring counties to the north could allow it new options to bypass the existing water plant it buys from, such as building its own water treatment plant on Kerr Lake — a massive reservoir that provides drinking water to communities in Virginia and North Carolina.
A page on the county’s official website, updated in 2025, declares its search for more water “a generational challenge” and lays out its plan to solve that challenge: “Franklin County’s pursuit of a direct Kerr Lake water intake is the product of years of planning, responsible resource management and good-faith regional engagement.”
Rep. Matthew Winslow, R-Franklin, had defended the proposal to allow his community to go around its northern neighbors in a press release Monday. He accused the existing water plant of charging exorbitant prices to Franklin County and said the water in Kerr Lake belongs to everyone in North Carolina, not just to Henderson and the other municipalities who own the water plant on its shores.
“Franklin County faces a growing water supply challenge that threatens both residential growth and economic development,” wrote Winslow, a homebuilder by trade. “Our county has carefully reserved limited allocations for future homes and job-creating projects. Once those reserves are exhausted, the primary alternative is Kerr Lake. However, current arrangements with the City of Henderson have proven difficult.”
On Tuesday, Henderson Mayor Melissa Elliott criticized the proposal, saying it threatens the future of her community. The legislature shouldn’t be siding with the suburbs over less wealthy rural areas like hers that are already struggling to stay afloat, she added.
“We’re already left out,” Elliott said. “We already are economically disadvantaged. So imagine just getting kicked. And then you get kicked again. And you continue to get kicked. That's the best way I can describe it. Because there is no possible way you can take the very thing that will help us grow and be a community away from us, and it not hurt us. It's going to hurt us bad.”
'Our greatest assets'
Last week Republican leaders inserted the proposed new Franklin County powers provision into a long-dormant bill, Senate Bill 214, the night before a planned vote. While the timing appeared to critics to be an attempt to rush through the change before opposition could mount, the bill faced swift and bipartisan opposition from leaders in the three counties it targeted.
“People should never wake up and discover decisions about their land and water were shaped while they were sleeping,” Elliott said Tuesday. “That is why we are alarmed. That is why we are here. Because what is done in the dark deserves to be brought to the light.”
Republican leaders in the state Senate put it up for a vote last week regardless of the critiques; it passed mostly along party lines with one Republican joining every Democrat in opposition. Sen. Norm Sanderson, whose district includes Warren and Halifax counties, was the lone GOP dissenter.
But in the state House, GOP leadership pressed pause on the idea, pulling it off the calendar last week and again on Tuesday. And then on Tuesday, the Senate followed suit. Hall and Senate leader Phil Berger each said they’ll work on a new version of the bill without the Franklin County provision.
That was exactly what some of the local leaders had sought.
“Especially in rural counties like Halifax, Vance and Warren County, our greatest assets — our greatest assets in those counties that I just mentioned — are land and water,” Halifax County Commissioner Vernon Bryant said Tuesday. “They are truly precious and limited in supply.”
Hall, however, told reporters the provision to empower Franklin County over its neighbors isn’t truly dead yet.
If the Vance, Warren and Halifax leaders and the Franklin County leaders can’t find some sort of solution to their disputes, Hall said, the legislature could very well resurrect this proposal.
“This body will probably do something on it one way or the other if they don't get it worked out. If they can do that themselves, that'd be much better for everyone.”
WRAL journalist Flynn Snyder contributed reporting