Current Action Alerts
Make your voice heard!
Your voice can make a difference in the fight to stop pollution. Sound Rivers’ Action Alerts are set up to make it super-easy for you to weigh in on what matters to you. Since you’ve landed here, we already know you care about the health of your waterways — waterways that belong to YOU, not polluters. Here’s an opportunity to make your voice heard, whether you’re weighing in on permit being considered, ineffective regulations contributing to pollution or legislation that will codify harms to your waterways into law.
Sound Rivers’ Action Alerts are pre-written, but you can always add your own comments to the draft message, or even delete the draft message altogether and make it wholly your own. All that’s needed is your name and email address (occasionally, an Action Alert will ask for your physical address, solely to identify which elected official your email will be sent to).
If Sound Rivers has not created an Action Alert for any listing below, contact and other relevant information is available.
Blounts Creek
NPDES Permit Renewal Application for Martin Marietta Materials mine
The fight to save Blounts Creek is not over.
Mining company Martin Marietta Materials has applied to renew its wastewater permit for a 649-acre limestone mine, and the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality is accepting comments on the proposed permit. More than 400 comments about the mine and its potential impacts have been submitted to DEQ so far, so many that the Division of Water Resources has announced it will hold a public hearing in November, according to Pamlico-Tar Riverkeeper Katey Zimmerman.
“This is essentially our last chance to get the terms of the permit altered to better protect the water quality and ecosystems of Blounts Creek — as well as protect landowner wells — before they begin discharging up to 12 million gallons of water per day into Blounts Creek,” Katey said.
Sound Rivers has a long history with Blounts Creek. Find out more about the permit, its renewal and what’s at risk here.
Write your letter to NCDEQ with our Action Alert here.
Want to find out why it’s important to save Blounts Creek? Sound Rivers’ very first episode of its podcast “Sound Rivers: Riverkeeping Tales from the Neuse & Tar-Pamlico” is “The Story of Blounts Creek,” which explores exactly how mine discharge could destroy this pristine creek and how the battle to save it unfolded. Listen to it on soundrivers.org or search for keyword “riverkeeping” on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Amazon Music.
Public comments will be accepted by NCDEQ until the public hearing.
Bridge Harbor Marina, Washington
Public comments sought for CAMA permit application
The North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality is accepting comments on a CAMA permit application for the construction of a marina at the southern base of the U.S. Highway 17 Business bridge in Washington. The proposed marina will have 133 boat slips, stick-built and floating docks, bulkhead, boardwalk, a boat ramp and boat lifts. The permit application is a scaled-down version of a project proposed in 2021 (read about the original project here). Sound Rivers is evaluating potential impacts and will comment in the near future.
For more information about the scope of this project, the Division of Coastal Management’s field report can be viewed HERE, and the permit application HERE.
Those who wish to comment can send an email to ashley.grandy@deq.nc.gov and Wayne.Hall@deq.nc.gov. Comments will be accepted up until the decision date, which will likely be “towards the 75-day review deadline for the project,” according to NCDEQ staff.
Durham: Lick Creek
Durham must adopt stronger ordinances to stop sediment pollution
We need your help to protect Durham’s water quality!
Despite new regulations, new sprawling developments continue to pollute Durham’s waterways, and the Falls Lake drinking water supply downstream.
Large-scale land clearing developments are turning Durham’s rivers a “tomato soup” shade of muddy. For over two years, in partnership with community members, Sound Rivers has been documenting sediment runoff from active construction sites polluting streams and creeks. Southeast Durham’s most heavily developing Lick Creek watershed has regularly seen levels of sediment ten and twenty times over the state of North Carolina’s standard for healthy waterways. Ellerbe Creek at the heart of Durham has also gained attention for running orange since the start of this year due to runoff from a large development at its headwaters. All of the waterways in Durham’s Neuse River basin flow directly into Falls Lake, a drinking water supply for half a million total people.
The problem is that Durham’s Sediment and Erosion Control regulations have not yet caught up with the rapid scale of growth. In response to public outcry about Durham’s tomato soup creeks, Durham officials have adopted some measures to strengthen S&EC practices. However, we have not seen evidence that these new measures are working to prevent mud from polluting Durham’s public waterways.
We need your help to tell Durham’s City Council that enough is enough — Durham must adopt stronger protections for its waterways before annexing more large-scale land clearing developments in its sensitive watersheds! Lend your voice to this call to action!
Write your email to Durham city councilmembers here!
Want to learn more about sediment pollution in the Neuse and Tar-Pamlico watersheds? Neuse Riverkeeper Samantha Krop breaks the problem down in our Sound Rivers: Riverkeeping Tales from the Neuse & Tar-Pamlico” podcast. Look for the episode, “Muddied Waters” here. The podcast can also be found by searching for keyword “riverkeeping” on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Amazon Music.