Victory: IPEX partners with MountainTrue for continued French Broad River cleanup

You may have seen the good news. Thanks to your support, we have turned the corner in our relationship with IPEX. MountainTrue is thrilled to announce that the multinational corporation has signed an agreement to contribute to our ongoing efforts to remove its product from the French Broad River.

IPEX has agreed to commit $500,000 to MountainTrue’s cleanup efforts on the French Broad River between Woodfin and Lake Douglas in Tennessee and engage with MountainTrue and the Town of Woodfin to complete upgrades to their riverside facility in order to better secure pipe ahead of future storms.

This is a significant victory, won in part by the dedicated tenacity of the river community, led by French Broad Riverkeeper Anna Alsobrook. You came together at three community meetings in Woodfin, Marshall and Hot Springs to show support for our mission and wrote hundreds of letters to IPEX leadership, asking them to engage with our cleanup efforts. It worked. 

IPEX listened. That’s worth celebrating. Thank you.

In numerous meetings with IPEX over the last two months, they have assured us that this is not meant to be a purely financial relationship. They are not simply “dropping off a check and leaving,” as representatives have said in recent meetings. We love that approach, and are hopeful that they will follow through, as articulated by Gray Jernigan, MountainTrue’s deputy director and general counsel.

“We are hopeful that this new relationship will be a long one committed to protecting the river and its floodplain, and look forward to seeing the results of IPEX’s engineering study for how they will better secure their inventory before the next flood arrives.

“This is a win not only for MountainTrue, but the whole French Broad River community. Our supporters stepped up to speak on behalf of the river, and it led to real, tangible results. Sometimes, we have to speak loudly for the rivers, forests and communities we share, and this victory shows the importance of that work. The work doesn’t end here, but this is a huge step forward together.”

That being said, their financial contribution is also significant. The $500,000, spread out over six to 12 months, guarantees that two of our debris removal teams will continue cleanup work on remote stretches of the French Broad River between Asheville and Lake Douglas, removing pipe that still layer the bottom of the river and accessing hard-to-reach stretches of whitewater where pipe and other debris remain. As MountainTrue seeks additional funding to continue its cleanup work into 2027 regionwide, this contribution from IPEX is key to guaranteeing work on the French Broad will not end well before its completion.

See the full joint press release from IPEX and MountainTrue below.

The winding river to cooperation

Since Hurricane Helene rerouted rivers, redefined floodplains and tragically reorganized our lives in Western North Carolina nearly two years ago, MountainTrue has been hard at work removing debris from the region’s waterways. We’ve now removed nearly 6 million pounds of debris since the storm, in fact. 

Almost every business, residence and industrial facility located on the banks of the French Broad River—not to mention rivers throughout the region from the Swannanoa to the Nolichucky—lost a significant amount of property and inventory. But those who saw the French Broad between Woodfin and Lake Douglas after the storm saw one type of debris coating the swollen waters, entangled in its banks and ensnared in its rocks more than any other—IPEX branded pvc pipe. Jon Stamper, MountainTrue’s debris cleanup operations director, has estimated that 40% of the debris between IPEX and the Tennessee state line came from the plastics manufacturer’s facility. To date, our cleanup crews have spent roughly $1.5 million on removing specifically IPEX pipe, Stamper says.

As an environmental nonprofit dedicated to protecting, among other things, the precious waters of our region, and with teams dedicated to removing storm debris so our rivers could float freely again, we at MountainTrue thought those who lost significant product in this storm should engage as neighbors, come to a cleanup, work with the community who was left to cleanup after the storm, discuss ways to strengthen their property’s storage and maybe even contribute to cleanup efforts. Fortunately, IPEX has arrived at the table to do just that. 

As a member of the river community, we are immensely thankful for this cooperation. We look forward to working together for years to come.