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Riverkeepers from watersheds across North Carolina were in the mountains this week, assisting with Hurricane Helene recovery efforts.

On Monday, Neuse Riverkeeper Samantha Krop and Pamlico-Tar Riverkeeper Katey Zimmerman, along with Stormwater Education Coordinator Sierra Stickney (Resilience Corps NC AmeriCorps member), headed west with a dozen other waterkeepers to provide materials and processing for water samples from wells potentially impacted by Hurricane Helene’s historic flooding.

“On Tuesday, we split into six different groups and went to six different locations to pass out well-testing kits,” Samantha said, adding that her assignment took her to the town of Burnsville, a particularly hard-hit area. “We were handing kits out to people, so they could take them home and get water samples from their faucets. Then we collected and tested them.”

Sierra was in Bernardsville doing the same.

On that day, the waterkeepers collected 112 samples, and results on this round of testing are pending. Once they return, well owners will be called and told whether their well needs to be disinfected.

Results from a first round performed two weeks ago by the local Riverkeeper organization, Mountain True, showed 50% of wells tested were contaminated with fecal coliform.

On Wednesday, the crew was back at again: Katey and Samantha were in Celo, where Samantha spent many of her childhood summers attending Camp Celo; while Sierra collected sediment samples along the Swannanoa River.

“We handed out 25 well-testing kits and also sampled two springs that essentially function as community wells,” Katey said.

Sierra gathered sediment samples from two locations: at Charles D. Owen Park in Swannanoa and at Biltmore Village in Asheville. The samples were sent via cooler to Envirochem Laboratories in Wilmington to be tested from volatile organic compounds.

“We collected three different soil samples at each site, and put them in a bag knead them all together, then take the sample from that mixture,” Sierra said.

The three days spent working in the mountains were the original dates scheduled for the annual Waterkeepers Carolina conference. Because the conference was canceled due to the ongoing recovery efforts, Riverkeepers opted to make the trip to assist the recovery in their area of expertise: water quality.

“Overall. the people we met were in shock. There was so much destruction all along the river. But I felt like spirits were really high. There’s a real sense of community, people helping other people, and a lot of hopefulness,” Samantha said. “This work is going to continue. Many people are a long way away from even thinking about their wells — they’re still shoveling out their homes. So the recovery, and this work, will be going on for a long time to come.”

Resilience Corps NC AmeriCorps is a service program of the Conservation Trust for North Carolina, funded by a grant through the North Carolina Governor’s Commission on Volunteerism.

Like how Sound Rivers Riverkeepers are pitching in to help their neighbors in the mountains? So do we! Donate to support their work today!