Henderson County Big Sweep Hauls 4,400 Lbs of Trash from Local Rivers and Streams

On Saturday, September 10, volunteers banded together to sweep Henderson County of as much garbage as possible! Nine teams of volunteers were formed including Mills River Partnership, Friends of Wash Cree, Trinity Presbyterian Church, Rotary Club, Cub Scout Troop 603, Mud Creek, East Hendersonville High School, Sierra Nevada and more!

This year’s haul far exceeded last year’s success. The 2016 Henderson County Big Sweep recruited 63 volunteers who served a total of 169 hours! We swept 11 miles of local rivers, picked up 24 tires, 81 bags of trash for a grand total of approximately 4,400 pounds of trash and recycling. What a successful event!

Don Huneycutt and 13 others from the Rotary Club of Hendersonville cleaned out 2,030 lbs. of debris from just Mud Creek. Under the leadership of Don, their team captain and the Henderson County Big Sweep coordinator for the past two years, they removed car and tractor trailer tires, and other trash that cluttered the waterway.

In 2005, the Rotary club joined the Adopt-A- Stream program, dedicated to improving the conditions of the water sources in our community, and adopted a portion of Mud Creek which runs directly through the town of Hendersonville and can become unsightly with garbage and trash discarded carelessly on its banks and in its waters.

“In the past six years, it has not been unusual for our team to remove up to 2000 lbs of debris from Mud Creek in a four hour period,” says Big Sweep team captain, Don Huneycutt. “It takes teamwork and hard work to safely collect all the items from both the creek and the banks and then transfer everything to a central collection point for pickup by the city. Teamwork and hard work also make for a satisfying and fun time”

MountainTrue wants to thank all of the volunteers who gave so much of their time and made this event possible! An important part of calling a region home is taking the time to care for it, and the rivers in Henderson County are better off with 4,400 fewer pounds of garbage floating in them.

Be on the look out for next year’s event and join in on the fun!

Save the French Broad, One Fish at a Time

Save the French Broad, 1 Fish at a Time

For the month of August, fishing will be good throughout the French Broad River Watershed for both fishers and non-fishers alike. In partnership with Sweetwater, MountainTrue is hosting a campaign to clean up the French Broad River through the sale of paper fish in local restaurants, bars and businesses. You can show your support for swimmable, fishable and drinkable water in the French Broad by buying a $1 fish at the following locations:

Bier Garden in downtown Asheville
Mellow Mushroom in downtown Asheville
Cascade Lounge in Asheville
WALK (West Asheville Lounge & Kitchen)
Ole Shakey’s next to the French Broad
Asheville Outdoor Center
Hang Out at Climbmax next to the French Broad
Thirsty Monk
Universal Joint in Asheville
Boondocks Brewing Tap Room & Restaurant in downtown West Jefferson
Triangle Stop gas stations around Asheville

MountainTrue and Sweetwater have teamed up 10 years in a row to sell paper fish and encourage locals to help clean up the French Broad River. Throughout those 10 years, over $150,000 has been raised to fund the rejuvenation and continual improvement of the French Broad River.

The selling of paper fish occurs in conjunction with the annual Save the French Broad Raft Race where local businesses race each other down the whitewater section of the French Broad. This year, you can expect teams from Bier Garden, Brixx, The Matt & Molly Team, Prestige Subaru, Cascade Lounge, Mellow Mushroom in Asheville, WALK, Liquid Logic, The Southern and Edward Jones to battle their way down the river in rafts donated by Blue Heron Whitewater for a chance to become raft race champions.

If you see the paper fish hanging on the wall at a local eatery, bar or business, buy one and show your support for the French Broad!

Thank you to our Save the French Broad sponsors!

9/10: Henderson County Big Sweep

Sept. 10: ‘Big Sweep’ Comes to Henderson County

Join the Big Sweep, and Help Keep Our Rivers Clean

Sign Up!

Henderson County, NC – The community is invited to lend a hand and help clean up Henderson County’s rivers and streams. On Saturday, September 10, MountainTrue hosts the annual Henderson County Big Sweep.

The Big Sweep is a county-wide litter cleanup program that brings citizens and community organizations together to clear trash from their waterways. Civic organizations, Scout troops, church groups, school groups, Adopt-A-Stream teams, neighborhood associations, city and county departments, local businesses, and individuals can all pitch in to make our waters cleaner and healthier.

“People get excited for our annual Big Sweep and it’s really inspiring,” says Gray Jernigan, MountainTrue Southern Regional Director. “By working together we can have a huge impact in just one day. Last year we pulled about 1,800 pounds of trash out of area streams. Every year we try for more.”

Participants can join in the fun by registering here.

Form a team with friends and family or join an existing team. Teams will hold cleanups between 9 a.m. – 3 p.m. in waterways throughout the county. For more information or to volunteer for Henderson County Big Sweep with MountainTrue, click here or call (828) 692-0385 ext. 1001.

MountainTrue has hosted Henderson County‘s annual stream clean-up event since 1991, and the Big Sweep is one way it has demonstrated a legacy of engaging citizens in environmental stewardship. Last year, 8 teams made up of 37 volunteers donated 148 hours and removed 1,800 pounds of trash from our streams! Let’s make this year even more successful!

In addition to Big Sweep, MountainTrue’s Clean Water Team coordinates an Adopt-A-Stream monitoring program to keep our waterways clean and healthy all year. Find more information about the MountainTrue at www.mountaintrue.org.

Bad Coal Ash Bill Being Rushed Through Raleigh

Action Expired

On the evening of Tuesday, June 28 the North Carolina Senate rushed through a rewrite to H630, the state’s coal ash cleanup law. This bad coal ash bill is quickly making its way through the legislature and we expect the House to take it up as soon as today.

Please call your NC Representative Immediately and ask them to NOT CONCUR with the Senate’s version of House Bill 630.

Official statement by MountainTrue Co-director Julie Mayfield:

“The legislature’s rewrite of the state’s coal ash cleanup law is a betrayal of the people of North Carolina. The General Assembly has abdicated its responsibility to clean up North Carolina’s coal ash and protect us from the ill effects of toxic pollutants.

“HB630 would disband the Coal Ash Management Commission and with it any effective oversight of the Department of Environmental Quality, which has a poor record of protecting our communities and our environment. Worse, this new legislation delays final classification for North Carolina’s coal ash pits and completely guts the criteria the state uses to determine the threat of these pits to our communities. The result will leave coal ash in place to continue polluting groundwater, our rivers and our streams.

“The strength of the Coal Ash Management Act of 2014 (CAMA) was that it used science to guide the coal ash cleanup effort. That science indicated that there are no low priority coal ash sites or low priority communities. Now the legislature wants to scrap the protections that are based on that science – protections lawmakers themselves have repeatedly touted as ‘the best in the country.’ The legislature’s willingness to weaken laws that protect so many people from such harmful pollution is both bewildering and shameful.”

Read the full text of H630.

H630, as passed by the Senate, would:

eliminate the Coal Ash Management Commission and, with it, legislative oversight over the NC Department of Environmental Quality, a deeply politicized agency with a poor track record;
eliminate criteria for risk assessment based on a site’s threats to public health, safety, welfare, the environment and natural resources;
give Duke two years, until October 15, 2018, to provide clean drinking water to affected households through a water line or filtration device;
require that DEQ classify ponds as “low risk” if dams are repaired and public water supply hookups are provided, regardless of whether they continue to pollute ground and surface waters;
allow the DEQ to revise and downgrade their classifications of coal ash pits for 18 months, until November 15, 2018;
delay closure plans for low and intermediate sites until December 31, 2019; and
give DEQ expanded authority to grant variances and extensions to the deadlines above, creating further delay and less accountability for Duke Energy.

The time to act is NOW. Call your representative and tell them that no North Carolina community is a low priority. Tell them to oppose H630.

French Broad Riverkeeper Father’s Day Clean-up

French Broad Riverkeeper Father’s Day Cleanup: Good Times and a Great Haul, Y’all

We want to thank all the people who came out for our French Broad Riverkeeper Father’s Day Cleanup. It was hot and sunny, and there were a lot of people splashing around and enjoying the river. And because of the hard work of our volunteers they were doing so in a river with less trash and debris floating in it.

Removed from the river that day were: soda bottles, tires, a lot of tires, a porch swing, a washer/dryer unit and more. Good haul, y’all!

We’d also like to thank all the sponsors who made this event special, especially the owner of French Broad Chocolates, Dan and Jael Rattigan and their two wonderful sons Max and Sam, and Ben Meyers, owner of Vortex Donuts who all joined us for the cleanup. Asheville Greenworks helped us with organizing and provided us with extra boats.

Those who participated in the cleanup received a box of French Broad Chocolates’ Bourbon and Beer collection or handmade flavored marshmallows and a coupon for a free scoop of ice cream. They also received a free raffle ticket for a basket that included prizes and gift certificates from MountainTrue, Nantahala Outdoor Outfitters, Vortex Donuts, Green Man Brewery, Burial Beer Co., Catawba Brewing Company and Buxton Hall. It was great to have so many South Slope businesses supporting our efforts and our river.

WLOS had a cameraperson covering the event from our launch point. You can watch the newsreport here: http://wlos.com/news/local/families-give-back-in-fathers-day-river-cleanup

Want to join the French Broad Riverkeeper for their next cleanup? Come out to Westfeldt River Park on Saturday, July 9 and join us for a special clean up sponsored by Blue Ghost Brewing Company and Nantahala Outdoor Center. Get your hands dirty, then join us for a tasting of the July edition of the Riverkeeper Beer Series.

Hope to see you there!

New Smartphone App Makes Anyone a Muddy Water Cop

Muddy Water Watch Launches New App; Announces Volunteer Trainings

Asheville, N.C. – Now anyone with a smartphone can help report illegal muddy water runoff and sources of sediment pollution. Muddy Water Watch, a project of MountainTrue, the French Broad Riverkeeper and the North Carolina Waterkeepers, has teamed up with Shiny Creek, an Asheville-based enterprise-class web and mobile application development company, to create a new smartphone app that makes documenting sources of dirty water easier than ever.

The Muddy Water Watch app can be downloaded for free from Apple iTunes or the Google Play stores. Once installed on a smartphone or tablet, a user can easily snap a photo of the pollution source, provide notes and submit a report. The report is geotagged so that it goes to the appropriate authority.

“This is a powerful new tool for tracking and shutting down sources of illegal sediment pollution,” explains Hartwell Carson, MountainTrue’s French Broad Riverkeeper. “Identifying the right group or official to submit a report to has always been the biggest challenge for our Muddy Water Watch volunteers. This app solves that problem, makes the reporting process much easier and allows anyone to alert the proper authorities.”

“We are excited to partner with MountainTrue to deliver a mobile app that can really make a difference for the environment here in Asheville where we work and around the country. Hartwell Carson and the crew at MountainTrue have a great team working to protect the environment and we are glad to be a part of that mission,” says Brett Crossley, President, Shiny Creek.

Sediment is the number one pollution source in the French Broad River Watershed and nationwide. It smothers aquatic life, warms the water, reduces oxygen levels, destroys habitats, and clogs fish gills. Sediment pollution often comes from the runoff from construction sites, stream bank erosion, and runoff from agriculture.

New Muddy Water Watch Trainings Announced

With the launch of the new app, MountainTrue and the Riverkeeper have also announced the first three Muddy Water Watch trainings of the season: June 20 at the Public Library in Marshall, June 28 at Haywood Community College’s Regional High Technology Center in Waynesvill and June 30 at REI in Asheville.

June 20 – Marshall Public Library from 4 p.m to 7 p.m.
11 N. Main Street
Marshall, NC
June 28 from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m.
Haywood Community College, Regional High Technology Center 112 Industrial Park Drive – Room 3021
Waynesville, NC
June 30 from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m.
REI Asheville, 31 Schenck Pkwy, Asheville
Asheville, NC>> Register for trainings.

Participants will get training on how to identify, document and report sources of sediment pollution. Each training session will also include a site visit to an active construction site.

The French Broad Riverkeeper and Riverkeepers around North Carolina previously held dozens of Muddy Water Watch trainings around the state, training over 150 volunteers and reporting hundreds of sediment runoff from construction sites. This program proved to a great example of how grassroots volunteers can stop our biggest pollution source and clean up our waterways.

“The Muddy Water Watch program is a great way for people to have an immediate impact that benefits our local environment and water quality,” explains Hartwell Carson, MountainTrue French Broad Riverkeeper. “Western North Carolina’s rivers are some of our greatest treasures and economic assets. Both locals and visitors paddle, fish and play in these waters and we need to protect them.”

About Shiny Creek
Shiny Creek designs and builds data-driven cloud-based mobile and web applications for enterprises and nonprofit organizations. Established in 2013, their consulting team includes designers and developers with decades of combined experience taking client ideas from concept to product quickly and efficiently. Shiny Creek has developed applications that range from sports statistics to enterprise data and environmental monitoring. For more information on Shiny Creek, visit www.shinycreek.com.

About MountainTrue
MountainTrue fosters and empowers communities throughout the region and engages in policy and project advocacy, outreach and education, and on the ground projects. To achieve our goals, MountainTrue focuses on a core set of issues across 23 counties of Western North Carolina: sensible land use, restoring public forests, protecting water quality and promoting clean energy – all of which have a high impact on the environmental health and long-term prosperity of our residents. MountainTrue is the home of the Watauga Riverkeeper, the primary watchdog and spokesperson for the Elk and Watauga Rivers; the French Broad Riverkeeper, the primary protector and defender of the French Broad River watershed; and Broad River Alliance, a Waterkeeper Affiliate working to promote fishable, swimmable, drinkable waters in the Broad River Basin. For more information: mountaintrue.org