State to spend $740,000 on four homes

North Carolina will spend $740,000 to run a water line to four homes.

The homes, along the Great Smoky Mountains Expressway in Sylva, have had their well water supply contaminated by benzene, a cancer-causing chemical.

To fix the project, the state will run a two-mile water line to the homes, spending the entire $300,000 that state lawmakers put in the 2006 budget to fix contaminated water systems.

Rep. Pricey Harrison, who fought for the special fund, said she is alarmed at the amount of money bieng spent to help so few people. 

"I don't know that it was a real wise use of those funds," she said. "I think we could have helped more by providing notification and testing for hundreds of citizens with that money." (N&O)