In a move more than a half-century in the making, the Town of Canton has announced the pending purchase of a key parcel of land where it plans to construct a new, state-of-the-art flood-proof wastewater treatment plant — ending a long chapter of dependence on a private system operated by the now-shuttered Pactiv Evergreen paper mill and setting the stage for a bold economic redevelopment of the historic site.
“No more will this town have to beg, plead and be under the thumb of somebody else,” said Mayor Zeb Smathers during a June 26 meeting of the Canton Board of Aldermen/women.
Since the early 1960s, the Town of Canton has benefitted from the mill’s treatment of the town’s wastewater at nearly no cost. The surprise closure of the mill in late May 2023 left the town not only grieving the loss of one of Western North Carolina’s largest employers but also grappling with how to provide a critical public utility…