Polk County will now go to the N.C. Department of Environment and Natural Control (NCDENR) to see what its next steps should be.

Polk County Manager Ryan Whitson and county engineer Dave Odom were scheduled to travel to Raleigh today to speak with DENR officials about Polk&39;s request to reclassify the Green River.

Polk County originally requested a class IV watershed, which would have only affected Polk County land, but the state urged the county to work with Henderson County to reclassify to a larger, class III watershed. Henderson County residents were adamantly against reclassifying the Green River to a class III and spoke out against Henderson County approving Polk&squo;s request.

Polk County will now either reapply for the reclassification with a class IV or the state could approve Polk&squo;s application for a class III without Henderson County&squo;s cooperation. The state holds the ultimate decision in the process.

Polk County&squo;s request to Henderson County is a separate issue from Saluda&squo;s current request to Henderson County to purchase the Tuxedo water system.

Henderson County is scheduled to make its decision on whether or not to allow Saluda to purchase the system sometime next month. It is state law that Saluda must receive Henderson County&squo;s approval in order to purchase property in another county.