CANTON (AP) — The largest employer in western North Carolina's Haywood County is partially shutting down this week because drought has cut water available for the paper plant.
The Asheville Citizen-Times reported today that Blue Ridge Paper Products in Canton began the partial shutdown Sunday.
Canton Mayor Pat Smathers says the plant's own reservoir is nearly depleted. The plant uses the reservoir to supplement water it takes from the Pigeon River.
Blue Ridge Paper Products manufactures paperboard for drink containers. The mill employs about 1,300 people in Canton and at another plant in Waynesville.
Smathers says plant officials told him the partial shutdown would last through this week.
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