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Take Action: Ask the Town of Black Mountain To Support A Ban On Single-Use Plastic Bags

Take Action: Ask the Town of Black Mountain To Support A Ban On Single-Use Plastic Bags

Take Action: Ask the Town of Black Mountain To Support A Ban On Single-Use Plastic Bags

We need you to take action to help pass a common-sense law to reduce plastic pollution in Buncombe County. The first step is getting the Town of Black Mountain to pass a resolution of support.

Please email your local lawmakers and let them know you support a ban on single-use plastics.

Plastic pollution is a global problem, and we must act locally to do our part. That’s why MountainTrue is advocating for a county-wide ban on single-use plastic bags and styrofoam at grocery and retail store checkout counters paired with a 10-cent fee on paper bags.

More than 500 local governments in 28 states across the country have already passed such laws to reduce plastic pollution. If we want Buncombe County to be next, we need to show them that we have broad support.

So why are we asking you to email the Mayor and Councilpersons of the Town of Black Mountain? As part of a broader multi-pronged strategy, we’re encouraging towns and cities to pass resolutions supporting such a law, which we hope will encourage our Buncombe County Commissioners to act.

To the best of our knowledge, these town officials do not oppose a ban on plastic bags. Many of the officials that we’ve spoken to are enthusiastically supportive. That’s why it’s essential that we communicate with them positively and respectfully.

Facts About Our Ban on Single-Use Plastics

Microplastics are a dangerous emerging contaminant.
Plastics don’t biodegrade; they break down into smaller and smaller pieces of microplastic that stay in our environment for thousands of years.

These microscopic pieces of plastic waste are everywhere.
We all breathe/consume approximately one credit card’s worth of microplastics every week. Microplastics have been found in the human placenta and breast milk.

Plastic production generates as much CO2e (carbon dioxide equivalent) gas as 116 coal-fired power plants.
As of 2020, the US plastics industry was responsible for at least 232 million tons of CO2e gas emissions per year, which is the equivalent of 116 average-sized (500-megawatt) coal-fired power plants (Beyond Plastics: The New Coal: Plastics and Climate Change, 2021).

Plastic production is ramping up and much of it is for the purpose of creating wasteful, single-use plastics. 
42% of plastic production is for single-use packaging (Science Advances: Production, Use, and Fate of All Plastic Ever Made, 2017). Half of all plastics created were produced in the last 15 years (NRDC: Single-Use Plastic 101, 2020).

Plastic films account for 40% of the microplastics found in the French Broad River.
MountainTrue has conducted widespread microplastic sampling throughout the French Broad Watershed. On average, we’ve found 15.5 pieces of microplastic per 1-liter sample of water, with some samples as high as 40 or 50 pieces per liter. The most common type of microplastics in the French Broad River is films (39.5%), the sources of which are plastic bags, food packaging, and candy wrappers.

Plastics are harmful to human health.
Plastics contain 7% chemical additives on average. Researchers suspect these chemicals contribute to reproductive health problems and declining sperm counts in Western countries. Phthalates, used to enhance the durability of plastic products, are found in personal care products, food packaging, children’s toys, shower curtains, and more. These chemical additives disrupt the endocrine system and harm the reproductive and nervous systems.

Styrofoam contains a likely carcinogen that leaches into food, drinks, and water supplies.
Styrene is used to make styrofoam cups, food containers, and disposable coolers, and leaches into the food and drinks they hold and from landfills into drinking water. It’s classified as a likely human carcinogen that causes liver, kidney, and circulatory problems.

A ban on single-use plastic bags in Buncombe County would have significant environmental benefits.
A ban on single-use plastic bags paired with a 10-cent fee on paper bags would reduce Sulfur dioxide (SO2) emissions by 43%, fossil fuel consumption by 86%, solid waste by 66%, greenhouse gas emissions by 83%, fresh water consumption by 32%, and energy use by 73.3% compared to plastic. Read more about the environmental benefits of our proposed ordinance here.

Our plastic bag ban would not be overly burdensome for people with lower incomes.
Our proposed ordinance would exempt customers using EBT, SNAP, and WIC from paying the 10-cent fee on paper bags. Even without that exception, the average cost to Buncombe County consumers would only be $3.33 per year, and customers can reduce or eliminate those costs by bringing reusable bags to the store.

Buncombe County has the legal authority to pass a plastic bag ban under the North Carolina Solid Waste Management Act.
The NC Solid Waste Management Act asserts that it’s North Carolina’s policy to prioritize waste reduction at the source and mandates that towns, cities, and counties implement programs and other actions to address deficiencies and “protect human health and the environment.” Because the presence of a pollutant that is harmful to human health and the environment has been documented in our region, the law mandates that local governments act.

Action Alert: Protect Our Trout Streams

Action Alert: Protect Our Trout Streams

Action Alert: Protect Our Trout Streams

Support the Amendment to the Sediment Pollution Control Act of North Carolina

Take action to safeguard our mountain trout waters and preserve the delicate balance of our state’s aquatic ecosystems. The North Carolina Senate has passed an important new amendment, S613, which aims to strengthen the protection of our mountain trout waters and tighten the agricultural exemption that poses a significant threat to our state’s aquatic ecosystems. Now we need your help to get it passed through the House of Representatives. 

In 2021, a Sparta-based developer called Bottomley Farms tried to unlawfully use North Carolina’s agricultural exemption to stream buffer requirements to clearcut land in Allegheny and Surry counties. The developer removed all the trees, shrubs, and vegetation all the way down to the edge of Ramey Creek. The result was severe erosion, sediment pollution, and a total collapse of the ecosystem in the creek — once a thriving spawning ground for native brook trout. NC Wildlife Resource Commission staff were only able to save 13 individual trout out of the hundreds previously documented in that stream.

In the end, Commission staff were able to relocate the surviving trout to an adjacent watershed, and the report submitted by our Watauga Riverkeeper with the help of Southwings led to the NC Department of Environmental Quality issuing a notice of violation followed by one of the largest fines ever levied by the department.

But this tragedy underscores the need for stronger buffer protection of mountain streams and a tightening of the agricultural exemption provided by the Sediment Pollution Control Act of North Carolina. This exemption shields agricultural operations from fundamental water quality safeguards, such as leaving small vegetative buffers along streams—a requirement imposed on nearly all other land-disturbing activities.

To tighten the agricultural exemption and prevent such future calamities, the NC Senate has passed S613, which would amend the Sediment Pollution Control Act to require a 25-foot buffer along DEQ-designated trout streams for new agricultural operations. MountainTrue supports this amendment, and we believe that this is a big step in the right direction.

To get S613 across the finish line, it must pass the North Carolina House of Representatives. We need you to act today by emailing your Representatives, asking them to protect our trout streams by passing this bill.

Thank you for your support and ongoing commitment to healthy waters in the Southern Blue Ridge Mountains.

A Plastic Bag Ban with a 10¢ Fee Is Best for the Environment with Limited Cost to Consumers

A Plastic Bag Ban with a 10¢ Fee Is Best for the Environment with Limited Cost to Consumers

A Plastic Bag Ban with a 10¢ Fee Is Best for the Environment with Limited Cost to Consumers

A plastic bag ban with a 10-cent fee on paper would dramatically decrease emissions of greenhouse gasses and sulfur dioxide, and the consumption of fossil fuels and fresh water at an annual cost of $3.33 per consumer — customers using EBT, SNAP, and WIC would be exempt.

Buncombe County, NC — A ban on single-use plastic grocery bags that includes a 10-cent fee on paper grocery bags would offer the highest environmental benefit to Buncombe County with limited costs for consumers, according to data assembled and analyzed by the local conservation organization MountainTrue.

Using environmental impact data provided by the American Chemistry Council — a group that lobbies and advocates on behalf of plastic bag manufacturers and the petrochemical industry — MountainTrue has calculated the environmental impacts of three scenarios: maintaining the status quo by doing nothing, adopting a plastic bag ban without a fee, and adopting a plastic bag ban that includes the 10-cent fee on paper.

 

Scenario 1 – Do Nothing: This scenario is based on current bag use multiplied by the per-bag environmental impacts as determined by the American Chemistry Council.

Scenario 2 – Post-Ban w/o Fee: This scenario assumes a conservative 50% increase in the use of paper bags after the passage of a plastic bag ban without a fee on paper bags. This is a high estimate based on data from cities that banned plastic bags without a fee on paper, which has shown increases in the range of 30%-50%.

Scenario 3 – Post-Ban w/ 10¢ Fee on Paper: This scenario assumes the passage of a plastic bag ban that includes a 10-cent fee on paper grocery bags and a corresponding 10% increase in the use of paper bags. 

While either bag ban scenario would be dramatically better for the environment than maintaining our current addiction to cheap, single-use plastic, adopting a plastic bag ban that is paired with a 10-cent fee on paper grocery bags would bring about the largest reductions in waste, pollution, and energy consumption. A bag ban with a 10-cent fee on paper bags would reduce Sulfur dioxide (SO2) emissions by 43%, fossil fuel consumption by 86%, solid waste by 66%, greenhouse gas emissions by 83%, fresh water consumption by 32%, and energy use by 73.3%. 

MountainTrue supports a plastic bag ban with a 10-cent fee on paper bags at the checkout aisle and has provided model ordinances to Asheville City Council and Buncombe County Commissioners that would additionally mandate that grocers use paper bags with at least 40% recycled content. This would further reduce environmental impacts. According to the Environmental Paper Network’s calculator, using recycled paper bags would reduce fossil fuel consumption by an additional 6.7% and greenhouse gas emissions by 30% compared to virgin paper.

These environmental benefits take into account expected increases in the consumption of paper bags after either bag ban would go into effect.

Using data and case studies from hundreds of localities that have already passed similar laws, MountainTrue estimates a 30-50% increase in paper bag consumption from a bag ban without a 10-cent fee on paper bags. MountainTrue’s preferred policy option, a bag ban with the fee, would result in a much smaller increase in paper bag consumption — approximately 10%.  

Currently, Buncombe County residents use approximately 132.4 million plastic shopping bags and 8.23 million paper shopping bags each year. Passing a plastic bag ban with a 10-cent fee on paper bags would zero out the number of new plastic bags used and result in a minimal increase in the number of paper bags to 9.05 million used per year.  

Cost to Consumers: $3.33/year

MountainTrue and the broader Plastic-Free WNC coalition are committed to passing an economically equitable policy that is not unduly burdensome to residents with lower incomes and fewer resources. We are committed to reducing this cost by partnering with City and County staff, local businesses, civic groups, and area nonprofits to educate and distribute free reusable bags to the people and families that need them most.

Case studies from around that nation have shown that the 10-cent fee on paper bags is critical to changing behavior and encouraging people to remember to bring their reusable bags to the grocery store. Additionally, the environmental benefits accrued from the fee far outweigh the minimal costs to consumers.

Our proposed ordinance would exempt customers using EBT, SNAP, and WIC from paying the 10-cent fee on paper bags. Even without that exception, the average cost to Buncombe County consumers would only be $3.33 per year, and customers can reduce or eliminate those costs by bringing reusable bags to the store. To put this in perspective, the average North Carolina resident already pays $745 per year in sales tax. (https://taxfoundation.org/sales-tax-per-capita-2019/)

MountainTrue and the broader Plastic-Free WNC coalition are advocating for the passage of an ordinance in both Asheville and Buncombe County that would ban single-use plastic grocery bags and styrofoam containers and would include a 10-cent fee on paper grocery bags. On October 11, 2022, Asheville City Council voted to begin public engagement and is due to receive a recommendation from City Staff this year. The City fielded a public survey from March 20 to April 30. Data from this survey will inform final recommendations to the city council.

MountainTrue Participates in Waterkeeper Alliance PFAS Study

MountainTrue Participates in Waterkeeper Alliance PFAS Study

MountainTrue Participates in Waterkeeper Alliance PFAS Study

Study shows widespread contamination of surface waters, though relatively low levels of PFAS in WNC.

MountainTrue’s Watauga, Green, and Broad Riverkeepers participated in a recently released, groundbreaking new study of cancer-causing per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) contamination across a select subset of U.S. surface waters. The study found that PFAS pollution is widespread. In samples collected from 114 waterways across the country, 83% contained at least one type of PFAS — substances widely linked to serious public health and environmental impacts.

Since the 1950s, PFAS have been widely used in manufacturing and are found in many consumer, commercial, and industrial products. Often referred to as “forever chemicals,” PFAS do not break down over time. Instead, these dangerous chemicals accumulate in people, wildlife, and the environment. As a result, PFAS have been found in surface water, air, soil, food, and many commercial materials.

“These dangerous chemicals are an emerging threat throughout our country. Here in Western North Carolina, we’ve documented relatively low levels of PFAS contamination,” explains Broad Riverkeeper David Caldwell, “we have more work to do to identify sources of PFAS pollution, but often increased levels are documented downstream of industry, landfills, and wastewater treatment plants.”

MountainTrue’s Riverkeepers collected water samples upstream and downstream of wastewater treatment plants on the Watauga River and Green River and an industrial landfill on the Broad River. The results showed generally low levels of PFAS contamination throughout the mountain region compared to samples collected in the eastern part of the state. Sampling conducted by the Broad Riverkeeper found no detectable PFAS upstream of the Cleveland County landfill and the presence of four PFAS varieties downstream (download the sampling results for the Broad River). The Watauga Riverkeeper found low levels of two varieties of PFAS upstream from the Jimmy Smith Wastewater Treatment Facility and higher levels and three additional PFAS varieties downstream (download the results for the Watauga River). The Green Riverkeeper found no detectable PFAS upstream of the Columbus Wastewater Treatment Plant and found low levels of three varieties of PFAS downstream in White Oak Creek (download the results for the Green River).

“This is a wakeup call for our region,” explains Watauga Riverkeeper Andy Hill. “But we have more work to do. MountainTrue and Waterkeepers Carolina are conducting additional sampling throughout our region and the state, and we will provide a more detailed analysis of PFAS contamination of local waterways.”

A total of 113 Waterkeepers across the country collected samples from 114 waterways across 34 states and the District of Columbia (D.C.). Independent analysis indicates widespread contamination, with 94 participating Waterkeeper groups confirming the presence of PFAS in their waterways. Waterways in 29 states and D.C. were found to be contaminated by at least one, but most frequently, many revealed the presence of up to 35 different PFAS compounds.

In some places, like creeks connected to the Potomac River in Maryland, the Lower Susquehanna River in Pennsylvania, and the Niagara River in New York, the level of contamination is thousands to hundreds of thousands of times higher than what experts say is safe for drinking water. An estimated 65% of Americans source their drinking water from surface waters similar to those sampled. While the state of North Carolina has done some testing of drinking intakes, additional data is needed. It is important to note that locally in Western North Carolina, we do not suspect a threat to drinking water supplies based on current evidence.

Scientific studies increasingly link these toxic chemicals to serious health conditions such as cancer, liver and kidney disease, reproductive issues, immunodeficiencies, and hormonal disruptions. Despite serious health risks, there are currently no universal, science-based limits on the various PFAS chemicals in the United States. For many PFAS chemicals, the EPA has not even set a health advisory limit that would give the public a baseline to determine what amount of PFAS is unhealthy in drinking water. In most cases, the EPA is not doing adequate monitoring for these chemicals, which is why these findings are so unique and important.

This data plainly demonstrates that Congress and EPA must act with urgency to control persistent PFAS contamination across the country. The current lack of oversight puts the health and safety of communities and ecosystems across the nation at risk and results in costly cleanup and treatment activities to remove PFAS contamination after it has occurred. To learn more, visit waterkeeper.org/pfas.

Real-Time E. coli estimates for the French Broad River at Pearson Bridge available on new website from MountainTrue and NC DEQ

Real-Time E. coli estimates for the French Broad River at Pearson Bridge available on new website from MountainTrue and NC DEQ

Real-Time E. coli estimates for the French Broad River at Pearson Bridge available on new website from MountainTrue and NC DEQ

MountainTrue has partnered with the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) and the Pigeon River Fund to create a new website that provides the public with real-time water quality estimates at Pearson Bridge on the French Broad River in Asheville, NC. The website combines existing technology and new mathematical modeling to estimate E. coli conditions in real time. 

The modeling correlates water turbidity data provided by the U.S. Geological Survey with MountainTrue’s and DEQ’s E. coli data at Pearson Bridge. The French Broad River at Pearson Bridge is now one of the few places in the country to have a real-time E. coli estimate modeling system.

“The goals of the WNC Recreational Monitoring program are to empower and enhance the existing community of environmental organizations already monitoring water quality in WNC, while expanding the Department of Environmental Quality’s analytical abilities to shorten the turnaround time in E. coli analyses and further refine risks associated with elevated bacteria levels,” said Landon Davidson, Division of Water Resources Regional Manager. “Near real-time calculations of bacteria levels are valuable to users because rapid changes in river conditions can increase bacteria levels significantly.” For more information on the State’s WNC Recreational Water Quality program, visit the DEQ website.

French Broad Riverkeeper Hartwell Carson explains, “Summer is when river recreation is most popular, but it’s also when afternoon thunderstorms can roll in, cause significant runoff and drastically change water quality. This new technology helps eliminate that uncertainty by providing the public with real-time estimated bacteria levels so that they can make informed decisions about whether or how to spend time on the river.”

The French Broad River Watershed is one of the most popular water-based recreation areas in North Carolina. On any given warm day, the French Broad Watershed hosts thousands of tubers, swimmers, canoers, kayakers, anglers, and whitewater boaters. Recreators frequently wonder how clean the river is and if it’s safe to swim or paddle. 

As part of its existing Swim Guide program, MountainTrue publishes E. coli data each week from May to September on the Swim Guide platform. MountainTrue utilizes the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)-approved IDEXX method for collecting and analyzing water samples and compares the results against the safe standard for health determined by the EPA. 

MountainTrue samples for E. coli because it’s the best indicator for the presence of microbes that pose threats to human health, such as Cryptosporidium, Giardia, Shigella, and norovirus. Heavy rains and storms often result in spikes in E. coli contamination, increasing the risk to human health. Contact with or consumption of contaminated water can cause gastrointestinal illness, skin, ear, respiratory, eye, neurologic, and wound infections. The most commonly reported symptoms are stomach cramps, diarrhea, nausea, vomiting, and low-grade fever.

While the Swim Guide program provides high-quality data, it suffers from a time lag, as E. coli samples take 18-24 hours to incubate. Water quality can vary significantly from week to week or even day to day. E. coli levels can change quickly with heavy rains, as stormwater triggers runoff from agriculture, sewer overflows, and failed septic systems. Swim Guide data taken from MountainTrue’s Pearson Bridge sampling site over the past month illustrates this problem. During a relatively dry period in June, E. coli levels at Pearson Bridge were well below the safe standard set by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). July’s heavy thunderstorms have caused E. coli levels at Pearson Bridge to spike significantly, including being over 25 times the EPA’s safe standard on July 13. 

As our mountain region experiences increased high-intensity rain events as a symptom of climate change, developing a model that provides E. coli estimates to the public is important. The French Broad Riverkeeper says MountainTrue and DEQ want folks to have the resources they need to make more informed decisions about when and how to recreate the French Broad River. Now, this will be possible thanks to the real-time E. coli estimator model and the USGS Pearson Bridge turbidity gage data on which it is based.  

These real-time estimates will also help the French Broad Riverkeeper and DEQ track sources of pollution as they continue working together to bring about a cleaner French Broad River. Visit frenchbroadwaterquality.com to view results in real time. Visit theswimguide.org/affiliates/french-broad-riverkeeper/ to view MountainTrue’s weekly Swim Guide results from across the French Broad River Watershed. 

Take Action Against Single-Use Plastic Pollution in Asheville and Buncombe County

Take Action Against Single-Use Plastic Pollution in Asheville and Buncombe County

Take Action Against Single-Use Plastic Pollution in Asheville and Buncombe County

Plastic pollution: we’ve all seen it littered on the side of the road, blowing in the wind, floating down rivers and streams.

 

Plastic pollution is a global problem, but we all have to be part of the solution. Together, we can stop plastic pollution at its source. Let’s enact common-sense laws at the state and local levels to limit the use of single-use plastics before they end up as litter in our rivers, lakes, and streams.

Our water quality testing concludes that microplastic pollution is widespread throughout the French Broad River Basin and other Western North Carolina waterways. Together, we can stop plastic pollution at its source. That’s why we’re working with nonprofit partners to implement a single-use plastic ban in Buncombe County. We can and should enact common-sense legislation at the local level to limit the use of single-use plastics before they end up as litter and microplastic pollution in Buncombe County’s rivers, lakes, and streams. Visit the Plastic-Free WNC website to learn more about our plastics-focused work in Western North Carolina and Buncombe County

MountainTrue Watershed Outreach Coordinator Anna Alsobrook clearly remembers the day she and French Broad Riverkeeper Hartwell Carson were confronted with the dismal reality of the plastic pollution crisis: “It was the final straw — figuratively and literally. A few years ago, Hartwell and I were paddling the Swannanoa River. Plastic was everywhere — thousands of plastic shopping bags littered the trees around us, and plastic bottles floated in the river like rafts of ducks. These weren’t new sights for us by any means, but they were the ultimate kick in the gut to start making more permanent changes to protect our rivers and streams.”

 

Want to join us in taking a stand against plastic pollution in Buncombe County? Add your voice below: