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Sound Rivers Water Quality Specialist Taylor Register and Volunteer Coordinator Emily Fritz helped kick off the Goldsboro Rotary Club’s annual Water Month series on Tuesday.

“Every March, the club focuses on all things water quality, with the goal of raising awareness for the local community by educating and advocating for clean water,” Taylor said. “I had the pleasure of speaking with their group last March, and was really honored to hear everyone say that my presentation was a highlight of last year’s program!”

With this year’s repeat invitation, the club made a special request: to include Swim Guide in the presentation. For that, Taylor asked Emily — who heads up the popular recreational water-quality program — to come along.

“Emily talked about our Litter-Free Rivers and Swim Guide programs, but the group was most excited to hear about our ongoing Swim Guide partnership with Wayne Community College,” Taylor said. “They were really happy to hear that this partnership is not only getting students engaged in environmental work, but also helping the local community by providing them with information about where’s safe to recreate in local waterways.”

Since 2023, Sound Rivers has partnered with Wayne Community College’s science department to provide much-needed coverage of an area of the Neuse previously not included in Swim Guide.

Taylor’s part of the presentation focused on sediment pollution.

“It’s the biggest pollution issue we’ve been dealing with this past year,” Taylor said. “We got a lot of questions from this portion of the presentation, but pretty much everyone commented that it’s shameful that local governments and the state are allowing sediment in our creeks to get this bad.”

Taylor said the Goldsboro Rotary Club is a personal favorite to present to.

“They’re a super-engaged group and do a lot of work to help the community,” she said. “And they’re already planning for us to join them again next March.”

Are you interested in a having Sound Rivers present to your group? Shoot us an email at info@soundrivers.org!