Septic System Facts & Tips

By Darby Stipe, AmeriCorps Western Region Water Quality and Habitat Restoration Associate

Here at MountainTrue, we’re all about taking practical steps to improve water quality and lower your environmental footprint at home. If you don’t live in close proximity to a city or town, chances are high that you have a septic system. Onsite septic systems treat wastewater on residential lots and usually include a concrete tank and a drain field.

When used correctly, septic systems have many benefits. Proper use reduces the risk of diseases and exposure to harmful pathogens by treating wastewater before it reaches surface drinking water sources or waters used for recreation. Decentralized waste systems also lower the infrastructure and energy costs communities would otherwise put towards collecting and treating wastewater.

How Septic Systems Work

Septic systems treat the wastewater going through your drains and slowly release wastewater into a drainage field to neutralize pathogens, pollutants, and other contaminants before the water transitions back into the natural water cycle. A typical system separates the solids and oils — the sludge — from the rest of the liquid waste — the effluent — which then exits the tank into the drain field through perforated pipes surrounded by gravel. The water percolates, filters, and purifies as it continues going down through the drainage field soil. Here’s a visual representation of a septic system in action.

Septic System Problems

Problems with septic systems usually arise as systems age or when maintenance is neglected. Septic tanks should be inspected and pumped every three to five years, depending on the household size. Because the sludge remains in the tank, it needs to be removed before it fills the tank and causes septic system failure. System failures can lead to costly repairs, hazardous waste overflows, and excess nutrients (such as nitrogen and phosphorus) infiltrating groundwater sources. If improperly treated sewage leaches into nearby drinking waters, it can cause severe illness to those who come in contact with the water.

Other potential issues can arise when improper waste products, such as harmful chemicals and grease/fats, are disposed of down the drain. Harmful chemicals can kill helpful bacteria and other organisms that break down the wastewater, and grease/fats can lead to clogged drains or pipes. Additionally, disposing of bulky food waste and slow decomposing materials down your drains can drastically increase the amount of waste buildup in your septic tank.

Microplastic dispersion into the environment is a little-known problem in which septic systems play a prominent role. Microplastics — pieces of plastic that continuously break down into smaller pieces over time — are usually too small to be filtered by gravel and sand. As a result, microplastics and their chemical additives often leach into surface water and groundwater.

While plastic waste and litter contribute to microplastic pollution, many folks are unaware that personal care items and laundry can also be a source of microplastic pollution. Clothing items made of polyester, nylon, rayon, or spandex shed microfibers when washed. And even though microbeads were banned from rinse-off cosmetics in 2015, they are still allowed to be used in makeup, deodorants, and lotions. Individual consumers can mitigate household microplastic pollution by:

Wearing clothes made from natural fibers and reducing consumption of clothing made from synthetic materials, when possible.
Installing a microfiber filter on the household washing machine.
Washing clothing made from synthetic materials in laundry bags and/or throwing microplastic collection balls into laundry loads.
Doing laundry less often with fuller loads.

How To Locate Your Septic Tank and Drain field

It’s important that you can identify the location of your septic tank on your property. The easiest way to find your septic tank is to obtain a copy of your septic system permit from the local health department. A septic system permit will indicate the approximate location of your tank, drain field, and potentially a secondary drainage area (only found if your home was built after the 1980s).

You can also locate your tank by following the pipes that extend from your home into your yard. First, you’ll need to locate the main sewer outlet pipe, which is usually four inches in diameter and typically found in the basement or crawl space. Note where the pipe exits the house and go outside to the same location. Using a thin metal stake, probe every two feet or so, following the pipeline underground as closely as possible. Septic tanks are normally located 10-25 feet away from the house and are no closer than three feet. As soon as your probe strikes a flat concrete, fiberglass, or polyethylene surface, you’ll know you’ve found your tank.

A septic tank’s lid may be visible above ground in most newer housing developments. If the septic tank lid is underground (common for older homes), you may be able to locate it by using a metal detector. Another alternative is to use a flushable transmitter — once flushed, it can be tracked to the inlet area of the septic tank.

Action Steps For a Safe and Effective Septic System

Here are nine important practices to consider when maintaining your own septic system:

Do not overload your system with water. Conserve water by avoiding excessive use and fixing leaky pipes and dripping faucets.
Have solids pumped from your septic tank every three to five years. Maintenance schedules will depend on the tank size and the number of users.
Keep the soil over the drain field covered with grass or other shallow-rooted plants to prevent erosion. Deep roots can clog systems. Maintain a healthy stand of grass to prevent erosion and excessive infiltration of water or ponding.
Do not drive on or otherwise compact the soil above the drain field.
Flush only toilet tissue and human waste down the toilet. Septic systems are not designed to treat pet waste.
Do not use toilet cleaners that hang in the tank, as they can corrode your toilet’s inner workings.
When possible, refrain from using your garbage disposal. Do not dump coffee grounds, grease, oils, or fats down your drains.
Do not use harsh household cleaners or put other toxic chemicals like bleach, paint, solvents, or pesticides down the drain.
Learn the signs of a malfunctioning or failing system. Backed-up water in drains or toilets, abnormally green vegetation, soggy areas over the drain field, and a foul smell could all indicate system failure.

Septic systems are excellent residential waste treatment options if they are properly maintained. Learn more by checking out the EPA’s SepticSmart program, and stay tuned for our upcoming MountainTrue University session!

Is your septic system in need of some TLC? MountainTrue has partnered with the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services to provide septic repair funds to qualifying property owners in Buncombe, Cherokee, and Henderson counties! Click here to learn more and apply.

Raleigh Report: The 2023 Session Kicks Off

While the North Carolina General Assembly officially kicked off its 2023 session with lots of pomp and circumstance earlier this month, January 25th marked the first real working day of the new legislative session.

Beginning on that day and every week thereafter — with just a few exceptions — legislators will arrive in Raleigh on Monday evening and depart on Thursday until they have had enough voting, speech-making, and deal-making and finally shut the session down. Along the way, they are expected to approve a two-year $30 billion budget and take up a host of high-profile issues, including abortion, sports gambling, medical marijuana, redistricting, and that old favorite, Medicaid expansion, among hundreds of other bills.

North Carolina does not limit the session length, so no one knows how long lawmakers will be plugging away. However long the session takes, MountainTrue will be there every step of the way, speaking up for Western North Carolina and the people who live here. Indeed, MountainTrue is the only WNC-based environmental organization with a year-round presence in Raleigh.

Our work will be more challenging this year after WNC lost several important legislators. Former state Senator Chuck Edwards from Henderson County, of course, is now in the US Congress. We will miss him in Raleigh, where he was the chairman of a key natural resources appropriations committee, but we will be glad to continue working with him in his new role. Also gone is Senator Deanna Ballard, who lost her seat representing the High Country in a primary to fellow Republican Sen. Ralph Hise. The good news is that Hise remains a chairman of the powerful Senate appropriations committee. The WNC delegation also picked up some muscle in the House, where Rep. Karl Gillespie, who represents Cherokee, Clay, Graham, and Macon counties, was appointed co-chair of a House natural resources budget committee.

This year as in past years, MountainTrue spent the political offseason preparing our list of legislative priorities for the new year. They include new investments in clean water, public access to rivers and streams, and policy changes that will protect the water we drink and the air we breathe. You can review MountainTrue’s key legislative priorities here.

We’ll keep you updated as the session progresses and our team works to advance funding and policies that benefit clean waters, resilient forests, and healthy communities in WNC!

2023 Western North Carolina Conservation Legislative Priorities

Protect Public Health – and the Jobs and Businesses that Rely on Clean Water

A recent report conducted by economists at Western Carolina University commissioned by the French Broad River Partnership found the total economic impact of the French Broad River and its tributaries is $3.8 billion annually, and river-reliant businesses create or maintain 38,554 jobs each year. In 2015, more than 55,000 people used a commercial outfitter to enjoy the French Broad, and thousands more used the river without an outfitter.

Unfortunately, bacteria pollution threatens this economic engine by making the watershed unsafe for the thousands of people who play in it every year. Contaminated water poses health problems, including gastrointestinal, skin, ear, respiratory, eye, neurologic, and infections.

Water quality testing in the heavily-used French Broad River watershed indicates the presence of E. coli and fecal coliform at levels that are unsafe for human exposure much of the time. One of the most popular areas for recreation, a 19-mile section of the French Broad River – from the Asheville Regional Airport, through the Biltmore Estate and the River Arts District in downtown Asheville – was added to NC’s list of impaired waterways in 2022.

To protect public health and the jobs and businesses that rely on safe recreational waters, MountainTrue supports the following initiatives to reduce bacterial pollution:

Increase local WNC funding to help farmers improve water quality. Agricultural waste is a significant source of E. coli and other bacterial pollution in WNC rivers and streams, especially the French Broad River which, as mentioned above, was recently listed as impaired for fecal coliform. Unfortunately, demand for state funding to help WNC farmers afford improvements that would reduce this pollution far outstrips the current budget. Expanding state funding for local Soil and Water Conservation Districts (SWCDs) to meet this demand is critical to improving recreational water quality in WNC. We would like to request a $2 million nonrecurring allocation to SWCDs in the French Broad Watershed, allocated through the existing Agricultural Cost-Share Program, specifically for livestock operation improvement projects.
Help property owners reduce stormwater pollution. The Community Conservation Assistance Program (CCAP) allows WNC’s SWCDs to help property owners reduce stormwater pollution in impaired waters. Like the cost share program for farmers, funding for CCAP assistance is insufficient to meet demand. Providing WNC SWCD’s with an additional $500,000 for the CCAP program will significantly reduce stormwater pollution in rivers and streams already impacted by bacterial pollution.

Other policy and funding initiatives that MountainTrue supports:

Abundant Housing Legislation – Opportunities for dense, energy-efficient housing located close to jobs reduce energy demand and transportation emissions. We support legislation to address housing availability and affordability.
Dam Removal Fund Implementation – The NCGA previously allocated $7.5 million to remove antiquated dams on waterways across WNC. MountainTrue is committed to advancing policies that give state agencies the support they need to advance dam removal projects efficiently.
Expand Transportation Funding – NC’s transportation funding relies on the gas tax, which is diminishing as people drive less and vehicles become more efficient. We support legislation that creates new sources of funding and expands the use to include stand-alone bike-ped projects.
Stormwater management reform for redevelopment projects – Recent amendments to G.S. 143‑214.7 deny local governments the option of requiring stormwater mitigation on redevelopment projects. We support legislation to repeal those changes.
Safe Passage Fund – As roadway construction creates new barriers to long-established wildlife corridors, inevitably, animals are increasingly encountering humans and their vehicles. We are joining a coalition of organizations seeking $10 million to support wildlife crossing projects.
Agency staffing needs and pay equity – State agencies across the board are struggling to hire and retain staff due to budget constraints and competition with the private sector. MountainTrue supports maximizing investments in state agency staff positions and salaries.

WNC Public Access and Recreation Investments:

Expand the Blue Ridge Snorkel Trail to include one publicly-accessible site in each WNC county, along with educational materials ($150,000 nonrecurring to Mainspring Conservation Trust).
Improve River Walk in downtown Murphy by building a boardwalk for Fisherman’s Loop, and extending the path to a housing development ($250,000 nonrecurring to the Town of Murphy).
Improve public access to the Watauga River Paddle Trail by purchasing an additional access point in Watauga County ($500,000 nonrecurring to Watauga County).
Expand access to the Green River and adjacent lands by developing a new access point at South Wilson Hill Road ($150,000 nonrecurring to Polk County Community Foundation).
Enhance Chestnut Mountain Nature Park by expanding paths and trails and improving the playground and creekside park ($450,000 nonrecurring to the Town of Canton).

Action Alert: Delivering on Goals Requires Stregthening Recommendations

MountainTrue has significant concerns about the latest draft of the 2045 Henderson County Comprehensive Plan. While much of the document and its goals reflect the priorities of our community, many plan recommendations are now undermined by weak or ambiguous language.

MountainTrue staff and volunteers have analyzed the current draft and prepared the following open letter — which has been shared with County Commissioners by MountainTrue’s Southern Regional Director, Nancy Díaz. MountainTrue urges Henderson County residents to urge County Commissioners to adopt stronger recommendations, fix critical flaws with the suitability maps, and formulate an implementation plan.

What you can do:

Write an email to the Commissioners about your concerns

David Hill – davidhill@hendersoncountync.gov
William Lapsley – wlapsley@hendersoncountync.gov
Rebecca McCall – rmccall@hendersoncountync.gov
Mike Edney – jmedney@hendersoncountync.gov
Daniel Andreotta – dandreotta@hendersoncountync.gov

Attend an upcoming County Commissioners meeting — click here to view the meeting calendar.

Submit a letter to the editor (LTE) of the Times News about your concerns.

LTE guidelines:
A 200-word count maximum.
The deadline for letters each week is noon on Wednesday.
The best email to send letters to is tnletters@blueridgenow.com.
Please include your address and phone number with your signature.

Dear Henderson County Commissioners:

On December 1, the Planning Board approved, with no opportunity for public input, a catalog of edits undermining and further weakening the County’s ability to meet its own goals. In addition, the current Suitability Maps are in conflict with the expressed goals of the plan. MountainTrue urges Henderson County Commissioners to revise the December draft — which doesn’t fully address the priorities of County residents as reflected in the County’s own public survey — by reverting to the earlier language of the 2045 Comprehensive Plan.

Through the County’s public survey, public input meetings, and hearings, Henderson County residents have made our priorities clear: protecting open spaces and forests, preserving farmland, and conserving unique natural areas. Residents also showed strong desires to expand access to broadband internet, improve water quality; reduce vulnerability to wildfires, flooding, and landslides; expand sidewalks, bike lanes, and greenways; and increase energy efficiency.

While the County deserves praise for passing a resolution to start conversations with the City of Hendersonville toward establishing a joint water and sewer commission, the Comprehensive Planning process itself has been less than ideal. Overall, the goals of the current plan are good, and the November draft of the Comprehensive Plan laid out sensible recommendations. However, the latest edits proposed by the Planning Board will make meeting the plan’s goals more difficult.

Weakening the Hand of the County
One of the most exciting ideas to come from the current planning process is the establishment of a preservation program to establish agricultural conservation easements. On page 62, under Goal 2 (Protect and Conserve Rural Character and Agriculture), the Planning Board revised a recommendation (Rec. 2.2.B) from “creating” to merely “consider the creation” of such a fund. The “consideration” of a farmland preservation fund was proposed in the last Comprehensive Plan. It’s time for the County to adopt more ambitious and committed wording.

On page 67, under Goal 3 (Improve Resiliency of the Natural and Built Environment), the Planning Board ignores safety concerns when it comes to limiting development above and below hazardous steep slopes, demoting a recommendation (Rec 3.3.A) from “encourage the preservation of open space and conservation areas in and around areas with a high potential for landslides” to just “consider encouraging.” The County Commissioners should “encourage” at the very least and would do better by establishing a strong steep slopes construction code.

On page 68, Rec. 3.4.D the Planning Board replaced “remove regulatory barriers […] for green infrastructure projects” with only the consideration of such regulatory barriers, which is too weak. Furthermore, a definition of Green Infrastructure is missing from the glossary. County Commissioners should adopt this definition: Green infrastructure is a network of natural and built green spaces that provide environmental, economic, and social benefits. It includes green spaces such as parks, trees, urban forests, streetscapes, green roofs and green walls, rain gardens, and more. These green spaces help to mitigate the effects of urbanization, protect ecosystems, reduce pollution, and improve public health.

On page 68, the imperative (Rec. 3.3.G) to “adopt” best practice design standards for new construction within the Wildland Urban Interface” was downgraded to an “encouragement.” On page 72, in the second paragraph for the description of Goal 4 (Connectivity), multimodal transportation funding is unnecessarily limited to the Utility Service Area. The County is promoting Greenways as alternative routes for transportation and to connect communities. This means building greenways not just within one Utility Service Area but also between them — such as Edneyville to Hendersonville. In each of these instances, County Commissioners should restore the more assertive language of the November draft and consider further strengthening the recommendations.

Turning a Blind Eye Toward Real-World Challenges
At their December 1 meeting, the Planning Board excised from the Comprehensive Plan the sole mention of climate change. The region is experiencing more frequent, extreme rain events — what used to be classified as “100-year floods” are now happening every five or ten years. At the other extreme, when droughts do occur, they are expected to be hotter and longer, increasing the risks of a repeat of the destructive wildfires of 2016 — which forced the evacuation of 1,000 people in the areas of Bat Cave, Chimney Rock, and Lake Lure.

Shifting climatic conditions put our farmers and their ability to grow food at risk, degrade our water quality, and negatively impact our tourism and outdoor recreation economy, yet, the Planning Board ignores these risks with the deletion of a sentence acknowledging these basic realities. The County should restore the language of the prior draft, which read, “As the frequency of extreme weather events increases, flooding, landslides, and drought-induced fires are likely to become a more regular occurrence.” Additionally, we suggest adding a sentence to this section clearly stating that “The County will develop policies and procedures that will improve the resiliency of the County to wildfires, flooding, and landslides.” (Coinciding with 29% of the respondents of the survey (p.144)

In some ways, the draft Comprehensive Plan is proactive when it comes to our changing climate realities. However, in critical areas, the changes made by the Planning Board unnecessarily limit the County’s ability to mitigate and adapt. For example, the Planning Board deleted a recommendation 2.2.D (page 62 in the November draft) that read, “Consider the introduction of Smart Solar programs throughout the County to encourage solar energy development and safeguard farmland” and recommendation 4.6.A-C (page 74 in the November draft) that read “Support the use of electric vehicles to reduce air pollution and dependency on fossil fuels.” Advancements to renewable energy, and more specifically solar panel and battery technology, have made green energy cheaper, cleaner, and more reliable than fossil fuels. To save on energy costs, the County should restore the recommendation to introduce Smart Solar programs, and in light of a recent projection (Bloomberg) that at least half of all passenger cars sold in the US will be electric vehicles by 2030, we would urge the Commissioners to restore the full text of these deleted sections.

Fixing Critical Flaws to the Suitability Maps
There are major flaws with the proposed Commercial and Industrial Suitability Maps found in the draft appendix of the Henderson Comprehensive Plan. These maps appear to conflict with the accompanying Plan Maps, as well as the Comp Plan’s stated goals and public input. Despite strong support for the preservation of open space and working farmlands, the designated suitable areas include sensitive natural areas, prime farmland, and key transition zones between protected lands and low-density residential areas. It appears that the map’s designers did not appropriately weigh for the following criteria: Biodiversity and Habitat Value, Agricultural Lands, Prime Farmland Soils, Wildfire Threat, Landslide Threat, or Flooding Threat.

While we understand that the Suitability Maps are not authoritative, they will certainly be cited by developers looking to build commercial or industrial projects within the areas highlighted as suitable. In addition, these maps will serve as guideposts for future Planning Board members and County Commissioners, which could influence land-use policy decisions. Therefore, it is important that these maps are accurate and reflect the goals and values stated within the Comprehensive Plan. The staff and their consultant should redraw the Industrial and Commercial Suitability maps and adjust the weighting to incorporate values expressed in the Comprehensive Plan’s own goals — namely, the preservation of farmlands and the protection of open space.

Furthermore, these flawed maps are granted an unwarranted level of importance by the Planning Board in its December revisions to the first Outcome on page 35. The plan’s outcomes are “established based on stakeholder and citizen feedback” (page 54) and are the bedrock upon which goals, recommendations, and actions were subsequently developed. All three outcomes were included without change in every version of the plan since the September 9, 2022 draft — until the Planning Board rewrote Outcome 1 in December.

The prior Outcome 1 reads, “Make intentional land use decisions that protect agriculture, rural character, and natural resources while strategically guiding development.” This was changed to “Make intentional land use decisions that preserve agriculture, rural character, and natural resources with the Future Land Use Map as a guide” (pages 35 and 56) This elevated the Future Land Use Map above the important policies articulated in the Comprehensive Plan and is in direct contradiction to the intent expressed in every draft (including the current one) that “the map and associated policies are meant to guide growth and development as well as land use regulations in the County planning jurisdiction …” (page 40, emphasis added). Rather than altering a high-level outcome so late in the planning process, we suggest that the language in prior drafts be restored.

Erasure & Exclusionary Language
In the “History of the County” section on page 12, the Planning Board has removed a reference to the Cherokee and Catawba and to the “forcible relocation” of Native Americans via the Trail of Tears. As a result, the Planning Board has taken an acknowledgment of a shameful chapter in our nation’s history and erased it completely. While intentions may not have been to hide, MountainTrue would not want the County to appear to be obscuring this part of our history. We encourage the County to reach out to the Eastern Band of the Cherokee Indians and other representatives of Native American peoples to adopt language that is accurate and respectful to our shared history.

Further down on page 12, the Planning Board suggests new language stating that “To plan for the future, the County must acknowledge its past and current strengths, in order to plan for the best possible future development of the County for its citizens.” There is no reason to circumscribe the beneficiaries of this plan to County citizens. There are many people who have a vested interest in the future of the County, including part-time residents, visitors, commuting workers, medical patients, and tax-paying lawful permanent residents. MountainTrue recommends just ending the sentence with the word “County.”

Looking Ahead to Implementation
In summary, while many of these changes may seem minor, we believe that, in this case, the devil really is in the details. The 2045 Comprehensive Plan is meant to serve as a long-range vision for future growth and development for Henderson County. As such, it is the responsibility of the County Commissioners to ensure that the goals reflect the priorities and desires of the people who live and work in Henderson County and the voters who elected them to office.

Through extensive public outreach and the County’s own community survey, those priorities are clear and largely reflected in much of the narrative and goals laid down in the Comprehensive Plan. Unfortunately, the December edits proposed by the Planning Board seem specifically designed to remove any sense of urgency or accountability and make the plan harder to implement.

The Comprehensive Plan still lacks an Implementation Section, which the Planning Board has assured the public can be adopted even after the Plan is voted on and approved by the County Commission. Clearly identifying what is to be done, by whom, and by what time is critical to turning the hopes and aspirations of the County residents into reality in a transparent and effective way. While MountainTrue continues to advocate for the inclusion of a well-thought-through implementation process, the lack of an Implementation Section underscores the importance of getting the details and recommendations right now.

Sincerely,

Nancy Díaz
Southern Regional Director, MountainTrue

The Importance of Watersheds

By Darby Stipe, AmeriCorps Western Region Water Quality and Habitat Restoration Associate

Part of MountainTrue’s mission is to protect and restore local waterways here in the Southern Blue Ridge. Watersheds are essential to this mission, though they are often not well understood. Learning about local watersheds is an important first step toward improving water quality and preserving ecosystems in your area.

So, what is a watershed? A watershed is an area of land that channels rainfall, snowmelt, and groundwater into streams and rivers that flow into common points, like lakes or oceans. Watersheds can be small, such as the area around a single creek, or they can encompass hundreds of miles; the Mississippi River Watershed drains the water from 31 different U.S. states. Every body of water has a watershed, and you likely live in more than one.

Healthy watersheds contain a variety of landscapes, native flora and fauna, and intact natural communities. Water can pick up sediment, pollutants, or harmful bacteria as it flows into larger rivers or lakes, which can lead to increased negative impacts on water quality further downstream. Healthy watersheds provide critical services; the condition of our local watersheds directly impacts our health and well-being. Elevated pollutants can result in unsafe drinking water, fish and aquatic species becoming unfit for human consumption, and swimming waters that can make us sick.

Watershed Pollution

There are two major types of pollution: point-source and nonpoint-source. The first is relatively easy to identify, as these contaminants tend to come from a pinpointed source, and their emissions are often highly regulated. Point-source pollution can come from factories or power plants with smokestacks, drainage ditches, or discharge pipes. While still a significant source of pollution in the U.S., the impact of point-source pollution has dropped dramatically since the inception of the Clean Air Act (1970) and the Clean Water Act (1972).

Of greater concern today is nonpoint-source pollution, which comes from multiple sources simultaneously. A major example of nonpoint-source pollution is stormwater runoff containing pollutants washed by heavy rainfall from impervious surfaces like parking lots, roofs, and streets into sewers or directly into bodies of water. These pollutants include car oil, tire scraps, pet waste, litter, and other types of garbage. Agriculture runoff is also an issue where the soil in the fields no longer has the capacity to hold as much water after years of intensive use without adequate ground cover. Animal waste, pesticides, herbicides, and fertilizers can all get washed away in the rain and drain into local waterways. Nonpoint-source pollution can be tricky to prevent because the pollutants come from so many different sources and activities.

Watershed Management

Managing our watersheds can be a complex task. Managers need to identify and implement sustainable land and water use practices so people can utilize natural resources in a given area without harming the existing plants, animals, and ecosystems. MountainTrue’s Clean Waters Program works to restore and support healthy waterways through collaboration with our organizational partners and communities. Our four Riverkeepers and Clean Waters staff continuously monitor point-source pollution, test for bacteria levels in waterways during the summer months, host volunteer cleanups to raise awareness about the problems our waterways face, and so much more.

Making a difference

Here are some steps you can take to support the health of your local waterways:

Be mindful of water usage.
Minimize or eliminate personal use of chemical herbicides and fertilizers. Need product recommendations? Contact our Western Region Program Coordinator, Tony Ward!
Avoid pouring toxic chemicals down the drain; take them to a hazardous waste center instead. Click here to learn more about disposing of hazardous waste on the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality website.
Use porous surfaces like wood, brick, or gravel on the walkways around your house to minimize water runoff.
Consider installing a rain garden in the low areas on your property.

To check out which watershed you are a part of, visit the EPA’s How’s My Waterway tool. After typing in your address, you can also see if there are any identified problems in your local watershed.

From May to September, MountainTrue’s Riverkeepers and volunteers collect weekly water samples from the Broad, French Broad, Elk, Green, Hiwassee, New, Notterly, and Watauga river watersheds as part of our Swim Guide Program. We process and analyze each sample and post the results to the Swim Guide website and mobile app before the weekend so you know where it’s safe to swim.

Want to get involved? Join us on a volunteer workday! Our dedicated volunteers help to collect water samples for E. coli and microplastic testing, eradicate nonnative invasive plants along waterways, plant native trees along stream banks, clean local rivers and shorelines, and more. Feel free to contact us for more information about how you can get involved.

MountainTrue staffers’ favorite holiday recipes – 2022

At MountainTrue’s regular all-staff meetings, we include a fun question as part of our check-ins. Recently the question was, “what is your favorite holiday dish?” This brought up many happy memories and some strong opinions. So, for our December E-news, our staff is sharing some of these recipes and the memories that go along with them. Some of us have so many favorites that we added more than one. Enjoy!

Deviled Eggs – Hannah Woodburn, Watauga Watershed Coordinator

Why it’s my favorite: When we have big family gatherings, the deviled eggs are the first to go. You’ve got to stack your plate with one or two early in the evening if you want to try them at all! This year I hard boiled 48 eggs to make 96 deviled eggs, and there wasn’t a single one left over. Our gatherings are not the same without them!

Ingredients: eggs, mayonnaise, Claussen pickles, spicy brown mustard, paprika, salt, pepper

Instructions: Hard boil the number of eggs you would like to serve. Place eggs in water and bring to a boil. Then cover, turn off the heat, and let sit for 12 mins (may vary depending on your elevation). It is good to check one from each batch to make sure the yolk is fully cooked.

After the 12 minutes are up, place the eggs in an ice bath and let them cool. Once the eggs are cooled, peel the shells & slice them in half. Place the yolks in a separate bowl, and combine with a finely chopped pickle, mustard, mayo, paprika, salt, and pepper to taste, and whip until creamy. Spoon or use a piping bag to disperse the mixture onto the halved eggs. Sprinkle with paprika and add an optional garnish (olives, rosemary, cilantro, parsley, etc.) and keep chilled until ready to serve.

Crockpot Spinach & Artichoke Dip – Sydney Swafford, Outings, Education, and Forest Stewardship Coordinator

Why it’s my favorite: It’s extremely easy but always everyone’s favorite when I’m hosting. I make it for pretty much every gathering. It’s a real crowd-pleaser!

Ingredients: 10 ounces of chopped spinach (fresh or frozen), 14-ounce can of artichoke hearts chopped, 8 ounces of cream cheese, 1 cup sour cream, 1 cup shredded mozzarella, ½ cup shredded parmesan cheese, 4 cloves minced garlic, spices to taste (salt, pepper, herbs, red pepper if you want it spicy, etc.)

Instructions: Combine all ingredients in a small crockpot (or larger if you double the recipe) and set to low for 2 hours.

After 1 hour, remove the lid and stir. Replace the lid and let cook for an additional hour, stirring occasionally. Serve with crackers or chips of your choosing. I typically leave my crockpot plugged in while serving, so it stays warm!

Granny’s Oyster Dressing – Gray Jernigan, Central Regional Director

Why it’s my favorite: My grandma always used to make this for the holidays, and it was one of my dad’s favorites. Both have passed away, and even though I’m the only one left in the family that likes oysters and this dish, I make it for myself during the holidays to remind me of them. (My mom makes non-oyster dressing for the rest of the family to enjoy.)

Ingredients: ½ pound toasted bread (any hearty white bread), 1 ½ cups crumbled wheat thins crackers, 8-ounce bottle of clam juice, ½ cup melted butter, ½ cup finely chopped celery, 1 teaspoon celery salt, 1 pint of oysters with juice

Instructions: Crumble the bread and add cracker crumbs into a large bowl. Heat clam juice until it boils. Then, pour the hot clam juice over the bread and cracker crumbs and let it stand for a few minutes. Add butter, celery, celery salt, and salt and pepper to taste. Stir in oysters and let the dish stand for a few minutes. Put in a greased casserole dish and bake at 375 degrees for 45 minutes or until the top is golden brown.

Great-Grandma Hastings’s “Dry Bread” Dressing – Callie Moore, Western Regional Director

Why it’s my favorite: This is my great-grandmother Hastings’s recipe that we always have with our turkey dinner. She grew up a Quaker in southeastern Ohio and lived a high quality of life to almost 103 years old!

Ingredients: 1 loaf of hearty white bread, approximately 4 days old (I used half white wheat and half whole wheat), ½ cup butter, melted, 1 thick slice of onion, sauteed, ⅛ teaspoon salt, ½ teaspoon sage, ½ cup turkey stock.

Instructions:

In a large bowl, break bread into small pieces the day before and cover with a tea towel. To make the sauce, saute onion in butter and then add the remaining ingredients. Put a layer of bread in a small roasting pan. Drizzle some sauce on. Continue with bread layers and sauce until all bread is in the pan. Bake at 325 degrees for about 45 minutes.

Sauteed Brussels Sprouts With Lemon and Pistachios – Julie Mayfield, Co-Director

Why it’s my favorite: I love this recipe because it is simple and light – a rarity among most holiday casseroles and other heavy dishes. It is also a great way to convert people who think they hate brussels sprouts — they’ve never had them like this!

Ingredients: 3 tablespoon grapeseed oil (ok to use vegetable or any other low-smoke oil); 1 tablespoon minced shallot; about 1.5 pounds of brussels sprouts, trimmed, leaves separated from cores (about 8 cups), cores discarded; 3/4 cup shelled unsalted natural pistachios; 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice.
Note: while you can spend time pulling off each separate leaf of each sprout, I usually remove and toss the 1-2 outer leaves and then slice/shave up from the base of each sprout until hitting the hard core. This is time-consuming, but it’s worth it.

Directions: Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add shallot and stir for 20 seconds. Add Brussels sprout leaves and pistachios, and sauté until leaves begin to soften but are still bright green, about 3 minutes. Drizzle lemon juice over the sprouts. Season to taste with salt and pepper, transfer to a bowl and serve.

Pear and Parsnip Puree – Amy Finkler, Development and Operations Coordinator

Why it’s my favorite: My husband introduced me to this recipe several years ago, and we always have it for Thanksgiving. I did not grow up eating Parsnips, so for me, this was a fresh and delicious addition to our sides.

Ingredients: 1.5 pounds of parsnips, peeled and chopped, 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, 1 tablespoon light brown sugar, ¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon, ⅛ teaspoon allspice, 4 ripe Anjou pears cored and cut into 1-inch cubes, ½ cup sour cream, ½ teaspoon salt, ½ teaspoon ground pepper

Instructions: Preheat oven to 325 F. In a baking dish, sprinkle the parsnip pieces with sugar, cinnamon, allspice, and 2 tablespoons of butter. Cover with aluminum foil and bake for 45 minutes.

In a large pot, cook pears and 2 tablespoons of butter for 3 min. Add the remaining butter and the baked parsnips to the pot and blend with an immersion blender for 30 seconds. Add sour cream, salt, and pepper, and blend until smooth. Serve immediately or keep warm until ready to serve.

Granny C’s Sweet Potatoes Alexander – David Caldwell, Broad Riverkeeper

Why it’s important to me: My Granny C. taught me a love for camellias and good cooking. She was the best cook, and I’m pretty sure that she created this recipe. This dish can be served as a side or a dessert!

Ingredients: 1 cup thinly sliced apples, 2 cups boiled sliced sweet potatoes, 1 cup sliced peaches, 2 medium bananas, sliced, 2 ounces lightly roasted almonds; sauce: ½ cup butter, ½ cup sugar, ½ cup orange juice, 3 ounces Grand Marnier

Instructions: In a saucepan, melt butter and sugar over low heat. When melted, add orange juice and bring to a boil. Remove from heat and stir in Grand Marnier.

In a toaster oven, roast almonds just until they begin to brown. The almonds will cook more in the casserole.

In a shallow medium-sized casserole, arrange from the bottom up: sweet potato slices, apple slices, banana slices, peaches, apple slices again, and sweet potato slices again

Pour the sauce over the casserole and bake at 350 degrees for 20-30 minutes (until the sauce boils). Add almonds and bake for another 10 minutes.

Pavo A La Brasa – Karim Olaechea, Communications Director

Why it’s my favorite: One of the key ways that I connect with my Peruvian heritage is through food. I don’t often get to visit my Peruvian family during the holidays, as tickets to Lima triple in price in the weeks leading up to Christmas. So, I try to bring a bit of Peruvian flavor to stateside holiday affairs.

Rotisserie chicken is a big deal in Peru. The original Peruvian chicken restaurant or pollería, La Granja Azul, was set up by Roger Schuler, a Swiss emigré to Peru. The restaurant became an institution, and I have happy memories of my family taking me there when I was a child. Now there are thousands of pollerías throughout the country and abroad, and just as many takes on the original recipe.

I’ve adapted a traditional pollo a la brasa marinade, and I use it to make a more flavorful and moister turkey or “pavo” that still fits right in on a traditional holiday table. The name of this dish is a bit of a misnomer as I roast the bird breast down in the oven, but if you have a rotisserie or “brasa” hefty enough to accommodate a large turkey … by all means, use it!

This recipe takes some advanced planning, as the turkey needs to marinate for at least two days, and there aren’t really any good substitutes for two of the key ingredients — ají panca (a fruity yet earthy red chili pepper) and huacatay (an aromatic herb from the Peruvian Andes). I’ve spotted ají panca paste for sale at Tienda el Quetzal on Merrimon Ave in North Asheville, and you can order huacatay paste and other Peruvian ingredients from Amigo Foods.

Ingredients: 1 whole turkey, neck, and giblets removed; 2 bottles of dark, malty beer like Negra Modelo or Cusqueña Negra if you can find it; ½ cup soy sauce; juice of 8 limes; ¼ cup of olive oil; ¼ cup of huacatay paste; ¼ cup of ají panca paste; 10 cloves of garlic; 1 tablespoon of fresh ginger, minced; 1 ⅓ tablespoon of ground cumin; 1 tablespoon of dried oregano; 1 tablespoon of salt; 1 ½ teaspoons freshly ground black pepper. Equipment: Large roasting pan, v-shaped roasting rack, meat thermometer (I recommend one that can stay in your bird while it roasts in the oven)

Instructions: In a blender, pour your soy sauce, lime juice, olive oil, huacatay and ají panca pastes, garlic, ginger, and spices. Add half a bottle of beer and put the lid on the blender. Pulse, then blend until the garlic and ginger are liquified, and all the ingredients are fully incorporated.

Place your fully thawed turkey (I hope you didn’t forget to pull it out of the freezer a week ago!) into a marinating bag and pour half the contents of the blender into the bag. Then pour in the remaining 1 ½ bottles of beer, followed by the rest of the blender slurry. Seal and agitate the bag so that the marinade is well-mixed and covering the turkey. Place the bagged turkey in your refrigerator and let it marinate for at least one day, preferably two.

On the day you plan to roast your turkey, remove the bird from the bag and pat it dry with a clean cloth or paper towels. Then place your turkey breast down in a v-shaped roasting rack that has been placed in a large roasting pan. This will allow the juices from the dark meat to drip down through the breast while the turkey roasts. Place your meat thermometer in the thickest part of the turkey breast and roast

Preheat your oven to 425 degrees. Once your oven is preheated, roast your turkey for 15 minutes, then turn the oven down to 325 degrees. To ensure crispy skin and moist flesh, resist the urge to baste your turkey or check on it too frequently. When your meat thermometer reads 165 F, it’s ready to come out of the oven. Allow the roast to rest for at least 30 minutes before carving.

Chocolate Steamed Pudding – Bob Gale, Ecologist & Public Lands Director

Why it’s my favorite: My father was a hobby chef in the 1950s-’60s and subscribed to Gourmet magazine, with copies always lying around the living room coffee table or couches. Around holidays, he cooked most of the fancy traditional dinners and desserts, and my siblings and I knew wonderful things were about to be cooked.

He made this once-a-year dessert, sometimes for Thanksgiving, sometimes for Christmas. More cake-like than pudding, this dessert is cooked in a tube pan within a pot of shallow water and served with a “hard sauce” topping. The buttery, creamy hard sauce melting like ice cream over the warm, almost fudgy-tasting cake is a flavor that is seared into my memory. It is fun to make occasionally. (I say “occasionally” because I would never want to take it for granted!)

Pudding:
Ingredients: 3 tablespoon butter, 2 ¼ cups flour, 2/3 cup sugar, 4 ½ teaspoon baking powder, 1 egg, 2 ½ squares unsweetened chocolate; melted, 1 cup milk, ¼ teaspoon salt

Instructions: In a large mixing bowl, cream butter and mix with beaten egg. Add the sugar gradually. In a second bowl, sift flour, baking powder, and salt together. Add these dry ingredients to your wet ingredients, little by little, alternating with the milk. Then stir in chocolate. Once incorporated, fold the batter into a buttered cake mold. Place the cake mold into the pot of slowly boiling water and steam for 2 hours. (Add water as necessary/do not let it boil away.) The top of the cake will split open, which is normal.

Hard Sauce:
Ingredients: ¼ cup butter, 1 teaspoon vanilla, 1 cup powdered sugar, ¼ cup heavy cream, 2 tablespoons rum or brandy.

Instructions: Cream butter and add sugar gradually. Add vanilla and cream, and beat until stiff. Add rum or brandy. (The texture is harder, more like butter, rather than fluffy like meringue.) Spoon a desirable amount over warm steamed pudding and serve.

Great-grandma Wechtel’s Pumpkin Pie – Callie Moore, Western Regional Director

Why it’s my favorite: This is my German great-grandmother Erma Wechtel’s recipe. I’m the fourth generation of “Wechtel women” to make this pie, including a homemade crust! I’m very picky about eating other pumpkin pies because I think this one is just the best!

Ingredients: 1 T. flour, rounded, 1 c. sugar, ¼ t. Each of cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger & salt, 1 c. Libby’s pumpkin (half a can), 1 egg, separated, 1 c. milk

Instructions: Mix dry ingredients thoroughly. Add pumpkin and mix. Add egg yolk and milk and mix. Beat egg white with a hand mixer until little stiff peaks form. Fold into pumpkin mixture. Put into an unbaked pie crust. Bake at 400 degrees for 30-40 minutes. Makes a 9″ pie.

Nana’s Gingerbread Cookies – Amy Finkler, Development and Operations Coordinator

Why it’s important to me: This is my Grandmother Betty Joyner’s gingerbread cookie recipe. Our family makes these cookies every holiday season and has done so for as long as I can remember. My Grandmother passed away in 2021, and I will continue to keep this recipe alive for the years to come. It brings a smile to my face when I bake and think of her.

Ingredients: 1 cup margarine, 1 cup sugar, 1 egg, 5 tablespoons white vinegar, 1 cup molasses, 5 cups sifted flour, 1 ½ teaspoon baking soda, ½ teaspoon salt, 1 tablespoon ginger, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, 1 teaspoon ground cloves, Optional: red hots and raisins for decorating

Instructions: Preheat the oven to 375 F. Cream the margarine and the sugar together thoroughly in a large bowl. Add the egg, vinegar, and molasses and beat well.

In a separate bowl, sift the flour, soda, salt, ginger, cinnamon, and cloves together. Add this dry ingredient mixture to the creamed margarine and sugar and stir thoroughly (the dough will get stiff).

Chill thoroughly (at least one hour, but overnight is best). Roll out to ¼ inch thick on a lightly floured surface. Use a cookie cutter to cut out desired shapes, and place them on a lightly greased cookie sheet (or baking sheet lined with parchment paper).

Use red hots or raisins to decorate if desired. Bake at 375 F for 8-10 minutes or until done. Cool on a wire rack. Yields roughly 1 ½ dozen.
Note: To make these gluten-free, substitute a gluten-free 1:1 ratio flour mix (I like Bob’s Red Mill 1:1).

Mulled Holiday Wine – Hannah Woodburn, Watauga Watershed Coordinator

Why it’s my favorite: This is just a holiday spin for your red wine drinking crowd at your next gathering. Mulled wine is aromatic and will fill your home will holiday comfort and cheer.

Ingredients: Red wine (I usually go with a cab sav or merlot), orange juice, apple cider, mulling spices, with an option to add fruit.

Instructions: In a crockpot or on the stovetop, combine a bottle of wine and mulling spices and let the flavors infuse for an hour or two. Add 1 cup of apple cider and 1 cup of orange juice; can be increased based on the amount of wine. This year I used a Bota Box and did three cups each of orange juice and apple cider.

Add chopped fruit for garnish. For the best taste, serve warm!