Tag: Tar-Pamlico River Basin
Landscaping for Clean Water
March 21, 2023
Polluted Stormwater Runoff- NC’s #1 Pollution Problem
When rain falls in a natural setting, almost all stormwater infiltrates the soils and groundwater or is 
taken up by vegetation. But when land is developed, the impervious cover (roads, rooftops, driveways, parking lots) increases the volume of stormwater that is not absorbed by the land and accelerates the transport of stormwater across the surface of the land. As impervious cover increases, so does the volume and velocity of contaminated surface runoff into streams, lakes and sounds.
Polluted stormwater runoff, including sediment from poorly maintained construction sites, is the number one reason for poor water quality in North Carolina. Sediment can cause severe problems for creeks, rivers and estuaries on which we depend for our drinking water, recreation, wildlife habitat and fishing. Stormwater is one of the main causes of pollution in the Neuse and Tar-Pamlico Rivers.
Stormwater pollution results in a multitude of economic losses. Sediment, toxic pollutants and pathogens in stormwater leads to poor quality fish catch and financial losses for the commercial and recreational fishing industries. Contaminated beaches result in medical expenses to treating water related illness and the beach community suffers from losses in sales and services. Stormwater pollution leads to increased water treatment costs. Increased stormwater runoff creates significant flood damage repair costs and dredging costs. Measures to decrease stormwater impacts can significantly increase property values.
Landscaping for Water Quality
In order to deal with the increased problems from polluted stormwater runoff, Sound Rivers began a restoration program in 2010 to implement on-the-ground projects to restore water quality.
The photo on the left is a created stormwater wetland constructed in 2015 at Edgecombe Community College in Tarboro via funds from the Environmental Enhancement Grant Program. Since 2015, SRI has constructed three created wetlands, along with a rain garden and bioretention cell. The wetland treats stormwater from the campus main parking areas. Click to view image of educational sign.
A similar project has been completed on East Carolina University’s campus in Greenville, NC. Sound Rivers in cooperation with ECU built one created wetland, three bioretention cells (engineered rain gardens) and installed permeable pavement on the campus to improve Green Mill Run, a stream that runs through the heart of the city and the campus.
What Can You Do?
Everyone can do their part to reducing polluted stormwater runoff. Limit your impact by:
- Applying fertilizers and pesticides sparingly and do not apply before rain events.
- Test soil first to determine fertilization needs. Tips.
- Reduce bacteria by picking up after your pets and dispose of the waste properly.
- Wash your car on your lawn where the chemicals and soap can be absorbed and filtered by the soil instead of washing directly into a stream.
- Dispose of lawn clippings in a compost pile.
- Harvest and reuse rain water via rain gardens, rain barrels and cisterns.
- Preserve and plant trees.
- Maintain your septic tank! Tips.
Stormwater and Your Rain Garden
More Information
Kayak-Canoe Raffle Rules and Conditions
March 21, 2023
Kayak-Canoe Raffle Rules and Conditions
Sound Rivers, Inc
Official Kayak/Canoe Raffle Rules
September – October 2016
Raffle Item: Wood kayak/canoe handcrafted by Ed Rhine
Benefitting: Sound Rivers
Price of raffle ticket: $20.00
Odds of winning: Odds of winning depends upon the number of raffle tickets sold. No more than 500 raffle tickets will be sold.
Expected Drawing Date: October 22, 2016
Method by which the winners will be determined and the raffle will be conducted:
The drawing for the kayak-canoe is planned to occur at the Washington NC Dragon Boat event on October 22 following conclusion of the races, unless insufficient number of tickets have been sold. Winners need not be present to win. The winner will be determined by a random drawing of stubs from purchased tickets. If not present at the time of the drawing, the winner will be notified via contact information supplied during ticket purchase. The kayak/canoe is provided without warranty and will be available for pick-up in Washington, NC or Chocowinity, NC. Prize winner will be responsible for all applicable shipping costs if shipment is desired.
Must be 18 years or older to purchase raffle tickets or claim raffle prize.
Contingency plan for the raffle if drawing is not conducted as planned:
If the Dragon Boat event on October 22, 2016 is cancelled for any reason, or the raffle cannot be conducted on that date as planned, the raffle will be completed on the next available business day at noon in Sound Rivers’ offices. If the Sound Rivers offices are not available due to some misfortune, another location in Washington, NC will be selected and the drawing held their on the first available business day following October 22, 2016.
If fewer than 250 tickets have been sold by October 22, 2016, drawing may be postponed for up to one month. If the drawing is delayed, drawing will be held in the Sound Rivers’ offices or other suitable location in Washington, NC or Chocowinity, NC at a time and date to be communicated at least 48 hours in advance on the Sound Rivers website and Facebook page.
No cash equivalent available:
No cash equivalent is available in lieu of the kayak/canoe. If the kayak/canoe has been damaged or destroyed before the drawing or prior to pick-up by or shipment to the winner, the winner will be entitled to a cash settlement of $1,500.
Redemption Claim period:
Winner will have thirty (30) days from the notification of winning to confirm his/her address and his/her acceptance of the prize. If we are unable to contact winner within thirty (30) days from the drawing date of the raffle, or if the selected winner declines acceptance of the prize, an alternate winner will be chosen from the remaining entries.
If arrangements to pick up the prize or to have it shipped at the prizewinner’s expense cannot be made with the winner within sixty (60) days of the drawing, Sound Rivers shall conduct another drawing using the original pool of ticket entries. This process will be repeated until a winner is located and the prize accepted.
Statement of eligibility, release of liability and publicity release required:
As a condition of being awarded the prize, winner will be required to execute an affidavit of eligibility, liability waiver and sign a publicity release. If the winner is unwilling to sign the affidavit, the winner will forfeit the prize and a new winner will be drawn from remaining entries.
Refund Policy:
No ticket refunds will be given.
Effective date of these rules: August 31, 2016
Ticket purchase locations:
Tickets are available at Cotton Patch Landing, 2018 Cotton Patch Rd, Chocowinity, NC 27817 and in the Sound Rivers, Inc. office at 108 Gladden St., Washington, NC 27889. Additional raffle ticket outlets may be added.
Tickets are also being sold by various individuals working to SAVE BLOUNTS CREEK.
More pictures showing construction of the kayak/canoe and information about the threat to Blounts Creek are available at www.facebook.com/saveblountscreeknc and at www.soundrivers.org.
Landscaping for Clean Water
March 21, 2023
Polluted Stormwater Runoff
When rain falls in a natural setting, almost all stormwater infiltrates the soils and groundwater or is taken up by vegetation. But when land is developed, the impervious cover (roads, rooftops, driveways, parking lots) increases the volume of stormwater that is not absorbed by the land and accelerates the transport of stormwater across the surface of the land. As impervious cover increases, so does the volume and velocity of contaminated surface runoff into streams, lakes and sounds.
Polluted stormwater runoff, including sediment from poorly maintained construction sites, is the number one reason for poor water quality in North Carolina. Sediment can cause severe problems for creeks, rivers and estuaries on which we depend for our drinking water, recreation, wildlife habitat and fishing. Stormwater is one of the main causes of pollution in the Neuse and Tar-Pamlico Rivers.
Stormwater pollution results in a multitude of economic losses. Sediment, toxic pollutants and pathogens in stormwater leads to poor quality fish catch and financial losses for the commercial and recreational fishing industries. Contaminated beaches result in medical expenses to treating water related illness and the beach community suffers from losses in sales and services. Stormwater pollution leads to increased water treatment costs. Increased stormwater runoff creates significant flood damage repair costs and dredging costs. Measures to decrease stormwater impacts can significantly increase property values.
Landscaping for Water Quality
In order to deal with the increased problems from polluted stormwater runoff, Sound Rivers began a restoration program in 2010 to implement on-the-ground projects to restore water quality.
The photo on the left is a created stormwater wetland constructed in 2015 at Edgecombe Community College in Tarboro. The wetland treats stormwater from the campus main parking areas. Two more created wetlands were built, along with a rain garden and bioretention cell. Click to view image of educational sign.
A similar project has been completed on East Carolina University’s campus in Greenville, NC. Sound Rivers in cooperation with ECU built one created wetland, three bioretention cells (engineered rain gardens) and installed permeable pavement on the campus to improve Green Mill Run, a stream that runs through the heart of the city and the campus.
The program expanded in 2017 and Sound Rivers is currently working with more than 20 community college, private college and K-12 campuses to plan and construct stormwater projects.
What Can You Do? Everyone can do their part to reducing polluted stormwater runoff. Limit your impact by:
- Applying fertilizers and pesticides sparingly and do not apply before rain events.
- Test soil first to determine fertilization needs. Tips.
- Reduce bacteria by picking up after your pets and dispose of the waste properly.
- Wash your car on your lawn where the chemicals and soap can be absorbed and filtered by the soil instead of washing directly into a stream.
- Dispose of lawn clippings in a compost pile.
- Harvest and reuse rain water via rain gardens, rain barrels and cisterns.
- Preserve and plant trees.
- Maintain your septic tank! Tips.
Stormwater and Your Rain Garden
More Information
Landscaping for Clean Water
March 21, 2023
Polluted Stormwater Runoff
When rain falls in a natural setting, almost all stormwater infiltrates the soils and groundwater or is taken up by vegetation. But when land is developed, the impervious cover (roads, rooftops, driveways, parking lots) increases the volume of stormwater that is not absorbed by the land and accelerates the transport of stormwater across the surface of the land. As impervious cover increases, so does the volume and velocity of contaminated surface runoff into streams, lakes and sounds.
Polluted stormwater runoff, including sediment from poorly maintained construction sites, is the number one reason for poor water quality in North Carolina. Sediment can cause severe problems for creeks, rivers and estuaries on which we depend for our drinking water, recreation, wildlife habitat and fishing. Stormwater is one of the main causes of pollution in the Neuse and Tar-Pamlico Rivers.
Stormwater pollution results in a multitude of economic losses. Sediment, toxic pollutants and pathogens in stormwater leads to poor quality fish catch and financial losses for the commercial and recreational fishing industries. Contaminated beaches result in medical expenses to treating water related illness and the beach community suffers from losses in sales and services. Stormwater pollution leads to increased water treatment costs. Increased stormwater runoff creates significant flood damage repair costs and dredging costs. Measures to decrease stormwater impacts can significantly increase property values.
Landscaping for Water Quality
In order to deal with the increased problems from polluted stormwater runoff, Sound Rivers began a restoration program in 2010 to implement on-the-ground projects to restore water quality.
The photo on the left is a created stormwater wetland constructed in 2015 at Edgecombe Community College in Tarboro. The wetland treats stormwater from the campus main parking areas. Two more created wetlands along with a rain garden and bioretention cell have also been built, treating more than 90% of the campus. Click to view image of educational sign.
A similar project has begun on East Carolina University’s campus in Greenville, NC. One created wetland and three rain gardens have been constructed to improve Green Mill Run that runs through the heart of the city and the campus.
What Can You Do? Everyone can do their part to reducing polluted stormwater runoff. Limit your impact by:
- Applying fertilizers and pesticides sparingly and do not apply before rain events.
- Test soil first to determine fertilization needs. Tips.
- Reduce bacteria by picking up after your pets and dispose of the waste properly.
- Wash your car on your lawn where the chemicals and soap can be absorbed and filtered by the soil instead of washing directly into a stream.
- Dispose of lawn clippings in a compost pile.
- Harvest and reuse rain water via rain gardens, rain barrels and cisterns.
- Preserve and plant trees.
- Maintain your septic tank! Tips.
Mission
March 21, 2023
Overview
Sound Rivers is a private nonprofit organization that guards the health and natural beauty of the Neuse and Tar-Pamlico River Basins. We partner with concerned citizens to monitor, protect, restore and preserve the watersheds covering 22% of North Carolina’s land mass in order to provide clean water to our communities for consumption, recreation, nature preservation and agricultural use.
Founded in 2015 with the merger of two of the state’s oldest grassroots conservation organizations, Sound Rivers combines the deep history of advocacy of the Neuse River Foundation, established in 1980, and the Pamlico-Tar River Foundation, established in 1981. This union to become Sound Rivers creates a powerful advocate protecting our most cherished waterways and bolsters our impact within the State of North Carolina.
Our three full-time Riverkeepers® monitor and protect the Neuse and Tar-Pamlico River Basins, serving as scientific experts and educational resources to schools and communities living in the watershed.
Your Support Protects Our Rivers
We are a grassroots organization supported by individual and corporate grants and tax-free donations. Sound Rivers is both the watchdog of the rivers and lifeblood of the people and communities that rely on this watershed. For more than 35 years the combined organizations have monitored and protected our rivers through:
- Education about environmental impacts to our natural surroundings.
- Advocacy for enforcement of existing laws.
- Development of new legislation to protect the health and natural beauty of our state.
- Conducting research that monitors and evaluates river health.
Our Mission
To monitor and protect the Neuse and Tar-Pamlico River watersheds covering nearly one quarter of North Carolina, and to preserve the health and beauty of the river basin through environmental justice.
Clean Water Act
March 21, 2023
Clean Water Act
Updates
The deadline for getting comments to EPA and the Army Corps urging that they halt plans to gut the Clean Water Act has passed, but things aren’t over yet. Stay tuned for more ways you can be involved soon!
NC Wrote Strong Comments to EPA Opposing Rollbacks: The North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality and Department of Justice sent excellent comments in to the federal agencies opposing the rollbacks.
Write a letter to the editor: Though the comment period is over, as EPA analyzes the comments received it is still important to show visible public support for clean water, one way to do this is to write a letter to the editor in your local paper. You can find some information on how to do that here.
EPA’s Waters of the United States Rule Aims to Gut Protections for Your Streams and Wetlands
Despite the fundamental necessity of clean water, politicians in Washington are trying to dismantle the Clean Water Act, which has kept our nation’s waters clean for nearly 50 years. This bedrock environmental safeguard is a central tool used by state and local governments to shield and protect clean water needed for healthy communities and families. Without it, polluted waters would threaten North Carolina’s local economies, communities, and way of life.
Allowing open dumping into upstream waters spells trouble for everyone downstream. Pollution dumped by industry flows from smaller streams into our rivers and lakes, across state lines and downriver, contaminating waters used by families and communities for drinking and recreation. The best way to protect clean water is to stop harmful pollution at its source, before it reaches our waterways.
Under the proposal by the administration and supported by industrial polluters, more than 49,000 miles of North Carolina’s streams and millions of acres of wetlands will again be at risk from pollution and destruction. At least fifty percent of North Carolinians get their drinking water from sources that rely on small streams that may lose critical Clean Water Act protections under the administration’s proposal. More than 7,000 miles of streams that feed into North Carolina’s drinking water sources would be at risk for pollution if the Clean Water Act is rolled back as the administration plans. Millions of acres of wetlands that provide flood protection, filter pollution, and provide essential wildlife habitat are at risk if the federal government moves forward with its plan.
Your voice will is critical to ensure North Carolina’s waterways are protected so please stay tuned on how you can help fight for our waterways.
More Information & Resources
Southern Environmental Law Center Fact Sheet
New York Times: Trump Rule Would Limit E.P.A.’s Control Over Water Pollution
The Intercept: EPA’s Own Data Refutes Justification for Clean Water Act Rollback
EPA fact sheet on major changes
North Carolina DEQ and DOJ comments regarding the rollback proposal
Adopt a Swim Guide Site
March 21, 2023
Adopt a Swim Guide Site
Click below to donate today!
El Programa de Swim Guide
March 21, 2023
El Programa de Swim Guide
Get your weekly water quality alerts here!
swim guide here
Want to get weekly water quality alerts straight to your phone? Text “SWIM” to 33222!
IN ENGLISH
Los encargados del río Neuse y Tar-Pamlico de Sound Rivers, trabajan con pasantes de verano y voluntarios para monitorear la calidad de agua en varios sitos en las cuencas de Neuse y Tar-Pamlico. Se toman muestras semanales en nuestros sitios, las cuales comenzamos desde finales de Mayo hasta el fin de Agosto. Monitoreamos nuestros sitios por la bacteria E. coli en las aguas dulces y por la bacteria enterococcus en el agua salada.
Tan pronto como estén disponibles los resultados de nuestro monitoreo, se publicarán aquí, en el sitio de web de Swim Guide, en la aplicación de smartphone, en nuestra página de Facebook, y se será anunciado por Public Radio East entre las 4 y las 6 de la tarde cada viernes. También, pueda recibir alertas de texto semanal durante el verano (envíe el mensaje NADAR a 33222 para formar parte de nuestra lista de alertas de texto).
RESULTADOS POR EL
el 29 de marzo 2024
Las pruebas semanales de Swim Guide finalizaron para el verano de 2023; sin embargo, ahora estamos probando sitios seleccionados mensualmente. Los sitios que se prueban mensualmente en Neuse incluyen Rolling View en Falls Lake; Buffaloe Road y Poole Road en Raleigh; Clayton River Walk; Busco Beach y la rampa para botes del río Neuse en Goldsboro; el acceso para botes y el área para nadar del Parque Estatal Cliffs of the Neuse en Seven Springs; la rampa para botes de la autopista N.C. Highway 11 en Kinston; Lawson Creek en New Bern; Slocum Creek en Havelock; y la rampa para botes de Midyette Street en Oriental. Los sitios en Tar-Pamlico son Stith-Talbert Park en Rocky Mount; Wildwood Park y Port Terminal en Greenville; y Havens Gardens y Pamlico Plantation en Washington.
El muestreo de Swim Guide se realizará el último jueves de cada mes y los resultados se publicarán en esta página al día siguiente.
EN EL RIO UPPER NEUSE
Buffaloe Road y Poole Road en Raleigh y el River Walk en Clayton no pasaron este mes.
EN EL RIO LOWER NEUSE
Midyette Street en Oriental no paso.
EN EL RIO TAR-PAMLICO
Havens Gardens en Washington y Port Terminal en Greenville no pasaron este mes.
Nuestra Misión
Monitorear y proteger las cuencas de los ríos Neuse y Tar-Pamlico que abarcan casi un cuarto de Carolina del Norte, y preservar la salud y belleza de la cuenca fluvial mediante justicia ambiental.
Criterios de Calidad del Agua
Los criterios de calidad de agua para la recreación de contacto usados por Sound Rivers vienen de Carolina del Norte y del EPA (Agencia de Protección Ambiental). Cuando la última muestra de un sitio presenta niveles de bacteria saludables, lo marcamos verde. Si la última muestra de un sitio no cumple con los criterios de calidad del agua, o presenta niveles de bacteria no saludables, lo marcamos con rojo. Cuando no hay información disponible o no hay resultados actuales, marcamos el sitio con gris.
E. coli, un tipo de bacteria que se encuentra en el intestino de personas y otros animales, es un buen indicador de contaminación fecal reciente. Aunque varios tipos de estas bacterias son inofensivas, algunos tipos nos pueden causar enfermedades, o causar problemas gastrointestinales más graves en grupos de personas más sensitivos.
El Programa de Calidad de Agua Recreativa de la División de Pesquerías Marinas, bajo el Departamento de Calidad Ambiental de Carolina del Norte, conduce pruebas adicionales en la región. Los resultados de estas pruebas son incorporados en los sitios listados en el sitio de web de Swim Guide y en la aplicación de teléfono celular.
Muchísimas gracias a nuestros patrocinadores, los cuales nos ayudan a traer
el programa Swim Guide para ustedes este verano!
Our History: Full Story
March 20, 2023
Our History: Full Story
VOICE FOR THE RIVER
It’s a clear, crisp November day in eastern North Carolina, and high above the lowlands surrounding the Trent and Neuse rivers, Samantha Krop is on a mission.
Through the window of a twin-propeller Cessna, Krop points out a massive, covered lagoon — part of a biogas-harnessing industrial swine facility — that ruptured and spilled millions of gallons of foam made from decomposing waste, dead hogs and expired deli meats over the land and into Nahunta Swamp in May of 2022.
“This facility has a clear history of illegally discharging waste, and DEQ knew it. They failed to take meaningful action to prevent a major pollution event from happening, and failed to adequately notify the public,” Krop says. “This is people’s drinking water; it’s the water they swim in; it’s the water they fish from — and the agency responsible for protecting it isn’t doing its job.”
Krop is the Neuse Riverkeeper, and she — like her counterpart on the Tar-Pamlico, Katey Zimmerman — regularly takes to the waterways and skies to surveil potential sources of water pollution. They’re the latest crew of Riverkeepers, carrying on a fight for clean water that’s been waged for decades. That battle began when two communities, separated by many miles of the Coastal Plain, took the health of the rivers in their own hands, forming grassroots organizations serving as watchdogs for the waterways. Today, they are Sound Rivers, a merger of two of the oldest environmental nonprofits in North Carolina, now celebrating more than four decades of being the voice for our rivers.
SOUND RIVERS
Forty years ago, a fundamental change had taken place in the Neuse and Tar-Pamlico rivers. Fish and crab, so abundant in previous decades, had declined. Forests of sea grass had disappeared, seemingly overnight.
“I grew up here, and I was born in ’48. I lived on the river, so I spent my childhood in the river. It was a blissfully ignorant time, an innocent time. We had no environmental concerns,” said Linda Boyer, who grew up at Summer Haven, just east of Washington. “Then, gradually, the area became more developed. We had a lot more houses on the river. We had a lot more serious, big farming. We had industry come in. Gradually the river became degraded because of all those factors, you know, slowly trickling down into the river. People started noticing fewer fish, fewer crabs; we started getting crab diseases. The future of the river — people started getting concerned about what would happen if there was no regulation.”
The change was not going unnoticed further south, on the Neuse.
“Back then, we swam; we didn’t get infections. We fished, we floundered, just really enjoyed it and didn’t think particularly of what the water might contain,” said Grace Evans, a lifelong sailor who first sailed the Neuse in 1960, then made the area her permanent home in 1972. “The first thing that we noticed back then was that there was a lot of trash, whether it was beer cans or just whatever people had thrown overboard — washing machines, toilets, hunters throwing deer carcasses in the creek. There was a lot of litter.”
But as massive fish kills began to occur regularly, clogging beaches and waterways with the dead and dying, a movement was started.
THE EARLY DAYS: ON THE PAMLICO
“It’s interesting to see the evolution of the organization, how we got from the kitchen table to the organization we have now. At the start, there was no staff, and I don’t know when or where we decided to call ourselves a board — that was a little presumptive on our part — but we just did what we needed to do to get things done,” laughed Dr. Ernie Larkin, one of the founders of Pamlico-Tar River Foundation.
PTRF, indeed, made its start around the kitchen table in the Summer Haven home of Ross and Linda Boyer.
“What were those early meetings like? Very long,” Boyer laughed. “We had two babies, and I would put the babies to bed, and I would sit in on the meetings. There was a lot to talk about, a lot to learn, a lot to try to come to grips with.”
Under the leadership of Dick Leach and Billy Jackson, seated at that table were long-time Summer Haven residents and other river-lovers determined to put a stop to the river’s decline. The first order of business was to sway Beaufort County commissioners from approving a plan to allow Texasgulf Chemicals Company to mine the riverbed at its Aurora site — and they did.
Throughout the remaining decade, Pamlico-Tar River Foundation led public resistance to many proposals that would have damaged the river, wetlands and more, and worked with Texasgulf, the state and other environmental agencies to resolve another ongoing issue at the Aurora facility: nutrient pollution. Nutrient may seem like an innocuous term, but when excessive nutrients are dumped into waterways, they feed algae, which leads to massive algal blooms and de-oxygenated water that kills fish in equally massive quantities.
“Some of it was just direct negotiation with (Texasgulf). I remember just going down there and talking to those folks and hearing what they had to say. And they did something; they changed their process with wastewater to recycle it,” Larkin said. “They were dealing with a lot of phosphates, a lot of nutrients, that they were putting in the water, and they knew that and did something about it.”
1989 was a turning point, however. It was the year the Tar-Pamlico River Basin was declared Nutrient Sensitive Waters by the Division of Environmental Management — those responsible for nutrient overloads needed to stop. It was also the year the Division of Marine Fisheries declared the river “commercially dead,” so decimated was the commercial fishing and crabbing industry.
On the Neuse, things were no better.
THE EARLY DAYS: ON THE NEUSE
“As a kid, I always wanted to be fisherman, but my mother and father talked me out of it,” said Rick Dove.
Dove got his chance, however, after earning a law degree, then getting a draft notice for Vietnam that resulted in a 20-plus-year career in the U.S. Marine Corps.
“I came here in 1975; the Marine Corps brought me here. When I walked out the gate for the last time, I traded my spit-shined shoes and put on the dirtiest clothes I could find and became a commercial fisherman,” Dove said. “Things were great until about 1990.”
That’s when the catch from the Neuse became riddled with sores; Dove and his son, Todd, who fished with him, had them too.
“I wouldn’t eat the fish, so I decided couldn’t sell them either,” Dove said.
Dove hung up his dirtiest clothes, went back to practicing law and found a new calling when he was hired as the Neuse Riverkeeper at the behest of Evans and other members of the Neuse River Foundation. At that point, NRF had been successful in its bid for a statewide ban on cleaning products containing phosphorous, which entered the waterways through sewage treatment plants, much to the detriment of aquatic life.
When Dove came aboard, he put his law degree to use again, this time going after those polluting the river, directly.
“We sued wastewater treatment plants and hog farms. Our docket had 20 cases on it, all the time. We were in court a good bit of the time, but most of our cases were settled out of court,” Dove said.
The Neuse River Foundation grew from 70 members to more than 2,000. The Neuse River had gotten a bad reputation, devastating both tourism and the housing market, and disparate interests banded together to do something about it. Hundreds of volunteers patrolled and sampled the water at points from the lower Neuse up to Raleigh, and local pilots volunteered their planes to get a bird’s-eye view of pollution sources.
A designated force of creek-keepers took an active role in tracking salinity, turbidity and oxygen levels in tributaries.
“It was a very active time in the ’90s. We got pretty good results with all the screaming and yelling we were doing about the health of the river,” Dove said.
Merging of Minds
Decades of advances in water quality were offset by steps backward, even as much-loved fundraisers to fund the work of the organizations drew large crowds of river-lovers — the PTRF Oyster Roast on the grounds of the Civic Center in Washington and NRF’s Taste of Coastal Carolina in New Bern. Then, in 2015, the voice for the river became louder when the Pamlico-Tar River Foundation and Neuse River Foundation merged to become a powerful advocate for protection of the watersheds covering nearly a quarter of the state of North Carolina.
“Sound Rivers has become a respected environmental voice,” Boyer said. “It’s always had integrity, and it’s always had one goal, which is to preserve the health of the river.”
Results included injunctions against industrial hog farms and EPA payouts to clean up rivers, as well as the creation of pollution-reducing rules by the state that were put in place for the Neuse River Basin in 1997. New rules for the Tar-Pamlico followed in 2000.
Heather Deck, Sound Rivers’ executive director, said that’s due to the long-time dedication of members, board members, volunteers and staff — too many to count.
“Over the past 40 years, we’ve been able to expand our efforts and influence to support many more communities up and down both rivers,” Deck said. “But the organization has remained true to its mission and effort to give the people a voice for the river and their communities. Everyone has a right to have an impactful voice in determining the protection and use of their communities’ natural resources — including our water resources — and no person should bear the disproportionate impact of pollution.”
But 40 years after two communities set the stage for grassroots environmental advocacy, gathering around kitchen tables and in borrowed offices, the work is far from over.
“People are just kind of shortsighted when it comes to the importance of a healthy environment, and it’s been so for a long time,” Larkin said.
Deep budgets cuts to North Carolina’s Department of Environmental Quality over the years has meant watching over the waterways and doing much of the work necessary to keep rivers swimmable, fishable and drinkable has fallen to organizations such as Sound Rivers.
“If it’s going to get fixed, it’s going to be fixed by the waterkeepers. There’s nobody else out there doing the work. The rivers are screaming because they’re out of balance with nutrients, and when nature goes out of balance, it comes back with things like fish kills,” Dove said, referring to the fish kills on the Neuse in recent years that have brought public concern a level reminiscent of the past. “I’d like to see us get back to what we used to do. We need to get tough again. Somehow, we need to get the message out to the public forum. We don’t have to be all negative, but we certainly have to speak for the river in ways that are honest and strong. You can’t compromise the river to support pollution. You just can’t.”