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.

Take action against single-use plastic pollution in Buncombe County

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.

Plastic-Free WNC

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:

Take Action Against Single-Use Plastic Pollution in Boone

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.

Take action against single-use plastic pollution in Boone

Our water quality testing concludes that microplastic pollution is widespread throughout the Watauga River Basin and other Western North Carolina waterways. Together, we can stop plastic pollution at its source. That’s why we’re working to implement a single-use plastic ban in the Town of Boone. 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 Boone’s rivers, lakes, and streams. Visit the Plastic-Free WNC website to learn more about our plastics-focused work in Western North Carolina and Boone.

Plastic-Free WNC

Watauga Riverkeeper Andy Hill on plastic pollution: “We’ve spent years conducting river cleanups, engaging hundreds of volunteers and partner organizations. We spend a lot of time on the Watauga, New, and Elk Rivers collecting water samples, planting trees, and tracking pollution. I thought we had a good handle on the plastic problem. A watershed change and paradigm shift for how I considered the issue came about when we partnered with the Town of Boone and Asheville Greenworks to install a passive litter collection device known as a Trash Trout. The data we began collecting on the type and amount of single-use plastics — including styrofoam and other littered items — truly blew us away.”

Want to join us in taking a stand against plastic pollution in Boone? Email Boone Town Council using the form below:

Asheville’s Merrimon Avenue Reconfiguration

Merrimon Avenue is dangerous – not only for pedestrians and cyclists but also for drivers. Has anyone else sat in your car waiting to turn left off Merrimon and watched your rearview mirror in horror as another driver comes flying up behind you and then swerves into the right-hand lane just barely missing your bumper? Or have you been the unfortunate victim of a situation where that driver didn’t quite swerve in time and crashed into you? We don’t want this to happen anymore. People should be able to walk safely along the sidewalks or bike into town without risking their lives.

Luckily, right now we have the opportunity to influence the North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT) to improve the design and make the road safer for all users! NCDOT is considering streamlining the road to add both bike lanes and a center turning lane, which would create a calmer and safer experience for everyone. You can provide your input by taking NCDOT’s Merrimon Avenue Survey by March 22, 2022.

If you’d like a guide that can help explain parts of this survey and give tips on how to respond to some of the open-ended questions, we encourage you to review this excellent resource created by our organizational partner, Asheville on Bikes. For more information on the project from a local perspective, check out this Asheville Citizen Times op-ed written by MountainTrue’s Community Engagement Director and North Asheville resident, Susan Bean.

Tell NCDOT to improve Merrimon Avenue

The City of Asheville is seeking resident input on the Merrimon Avenue Reconfiguration Project. The City’s comment period — open until March 22, 2022 — aims to gather public feedback about a proposed 4-3 conversion (road diet) for Merrimon Avenue. This conversion would take place as part of an upcoming NCDOT repaving project, a project which had been delayed, until now, by the pandemic and by discussions between NCDOT and the City about the future of Merrimon Avenue. Repaving projects include re-striping between the curbs, and that re-striping can be designed to create a different traffic configuration, as is proposed for Merrimon.

This repaving and subsequent 4-3 conversion is a once-in-a-decade opportunity to make Merrimon Avenue better fit the needs of the community. Like our friends at Asheville on Bikes, we recommend that Asheville residents follow this project and discuss it with their neighbors.

Asheville — the tenth largest city in North Carolina — continues to rank #1 in pedestrian and bicyclist death and injury. As the Citizen Times reported earlier in March, between 2010-18, Asheville ranked first in the state per capita in both total pedestrian crashes per year and in pedestrian crashes that result in injury or death.

MountainTrue supports a 4-3 conversion for Merrimon Avenue north of downtown for many reasons — and one of the best reasons is that it will make the road safer for all users.

Here’s what we know about Merrimon Avenue as it stands right now:

Merrimon Avenue is dangerous and doesn’t work well for any road user, including motorists.
Four-lane undivided highways are dangerous by design — resulting in conflicts between high-speed through traffic, left-turning vehicles, and other road users.
Merrimon Avenue averages a crash almost every other day.
- 20% of those crashes result in injury.
- Between 2010-18, Asheville ranked first in the state per capita in both total pedestrian crashes per year and in pedestrian crashes that result in injury or death.
Merrimon Avenue is dangerous. More dangerous than other comparable streets across the state. Accidents happen almost daily, frequently causing injury and sometimes even death. A safer design is possible and would create a calmer AND safer experience for all road users – drivers, pedestrians, emergency vehicles, cyclists – everyone.

Based on what we know about 4-lane roads that are reconfigured into 3-lanes with a center turn-lane:

An improved Merrimon Ave will be safer for all users and all abilities: pedestrians, drivers, and bicyclists alike
An improved Merrimon Ave will slow down traffic without making trips significantly longer, and make for a more pleasant experience for local users of the corridor
Businesses will benefit as it will be easier and safer for customers traveling both directions to turn left into them
New bike lanes would create a buffer of space between pedestrians on the sidewalks and vehicular traffic
15 years of transportation planning by various agencies have all supported this conversion

Let’s support a safer multi-modal Merrimon Avenue. Take action today and let the NC Department of Transportation know that you support a better, safer Merrimon Ave.

Asheville residents: take NCDOT's Merrimon Avenue Survey

Microplastic pollution is widespread throughout the waters of Western North Carolina

Testing by MountainTrue shows that microplastics are present throughout the Broad, French Broad, Green, Hiwassee, Little Tennessee, New River and Watauga River Basins.

Western North Carolina — Regional conservation organization MountainTrue has documented the high levels of microplastics in surface water samples collected from waterways throughout western North Carolina. Microplastics are pieces of plastic smaller than 5 millimeters that are the result of the breakdown of larger plastic litter and debris into smaller and smaller pieces. They are harmful to aquatic life and are considered a potential threat to human health.

MountainTrue collected and analyzed water samples from the Broad, French Broad, Green, Hiwassee, Little Tennessee, New River and Watauga River Basins. We found microplastics in every sample from every region, even in otherwise pristine areas and protected watersheds. We documented an average of 19 particles of microplastic per liter of water across all tested watersheds. The highest particle counts of microplastics were found in the Little Tennessee (37 particles/liter) and Hiwassee (30 particles/liter) watersheds. Even in watersheds with lower levels of microplastic contamination, there were testing sites with concentrations in the high twenties and thirties.

Watershed	Avg no. of microfibers per liter	Avg no of microbeads per liter	Avg. no of microfragments per liters	Avg. no. of microfilms per liter	Avg no. of all microplastics per liter
Broad River	12	1	5	6	24
French Broad River	7	0	4	5	16
Green River	20	0	5	2	27
Hiwassee River	18	0	2	10	30
Little Tennessee River	29	1	3	5	37
New River	20	0	3	6	29
Watauga River	14	0	0	3	17
All Watersheds	12	0	2	5	19

Microfibers, which come from synthetic clothing and fishing line, was the most common form of microplastic that we observed. Microfilms, which degrade from plastic bags and food wrappers, accounted for more than a quarter of microplastics recorded.

There have been significant amounts of microplastics research in marine systems, but microplastics in freshwater systems have been less studied overall. MountainTrue’s study is one of the first to look at levels across western North Carolina in order to gain a general understanding of the amount of microplastics in our water. MountainTrue is partnering with the Waterkeeper Alliance on a state-wide study for all of North Carolina.

Microplastics can enter the environment as plastic litter degrades, in runoff from landfills, and through discharges from wastewater treatment plants. Once in the environment, they can travel for thousands of miles suspended in water or carried by the wind.

MountainTrue is partnering with businesses in Hendersonville to help them shift their operations away from single-use plastics toward reusable bags and compostable utensils and packaging through the Working to be Plastic Free partnership. In Buncombe County and the Town of Boone, MountainTrue is advocating for local ordinances that would encourage the use of reusable shopping bags by replacing single-use plastic bags with paper bags and charging a 10 cent fee that would be waived for shoppers enrolled in the SNAP or WIC programs. To learn how you can support these efforts visit plasticfreewnc.com.

“The first step to stop the contamination of our environment and our bodies is to reduce the amount of plastic that enters and escapes the waste stream,” explains Anna Alsobrook, MountainTrue’s French Broad Watershed Outreach Coordinator. “And that starts by breaking our dependence on single-use plastics like plastic grocery bags and fast food utensils and packaging.”

Microplastics are inadvertently ingested by fish and other aquatic organisms causing microplastics to be transferred throughout the food web. Researchers have found that microplastic ingestion can negatively affect freshwater fish through physical complications of passing plastic through the gut or false satiation. Microplastics can also leach harmful chemicals like plasticizers and additives into the organs of fish. The chemicals have varying effects on fish changing feeding rates, development and survival. Much of the research is focused on centrarchids. Centrarchids are the family of sunfish, and they are a sentinel species, so they are often used to detect risks to humans by providing advance warning of danger.

People consume microplastics in contaminated food and water, and by breathing them in. Microplastics have been found in seafood, salt, tap water and even in bottled water. It is estimated that, globally, people ingest an average of five grams, or the equivalent of a credit card, worth of plastic every week.

The effects of plastic pollution on human health is the subject of a growing body of research. A study has found microplastics small enough to be carried in the bloodstream in the placentas of pregnant mothers. Other research has shown that microplastics cause damage to human cells, including cell death and allergic reactions, at levels known to be consumed in food.

Other research has shown that it’s not just the plastics, but also the additives used to make them can have a harmful effect on human health. Phthalates, which are a family of chemicals used in food packaging, are known endocrine disruptors that harm the reproductive and nervous systems and have been linked to higher rates of childhood asthma and other respiratory conditions. Styrene, which is used to make styrofoam cups, food containers, and disposable coolers, leaches into the food and drinks they hold and from landfills into drinking water. The World Health Organization has classified styrene as a probable human carcinogen.

“These plastics can persist in our environment for hundreds if not thousands of years,” says Anna Alsobrook. “The more we learn about what plastics and the chemicals used to make them are doing to our environment and to our bodies, the clearer it becomes that we need to take action now.”

MountainTrue FAQ: SMIE Volunteering

Let’s chat bugs! Last December on the MountainTrue blog, we considered What’s Bugging Our Rivers. Today, we’ll take a deeper dive into our participation in the Stream Monitoring Information Exchange (SMIE) program and our partnership with the Environmental Quality Institute (EQI), based in Black Mountain, NC. We’ll split this blog post into two main sections: we’ll start with a summary of the SMIE program and our partnership with EQI and conclude with a brief SMIE volunteer FAQ.

About SMIE

SMIE is a collaborative, volunteer-based biological water quality monitoring program that analyzes aquatic macroinvertebrate population data from across Western North Carolina (WNC). The SMIE program was developed in 2004 by Clean Water for North Carolina (CWFNC) (as creative lead), EQI, Haywood Waterways Association, Riverlink, and two of MountainTrue’s predecessor organizations: the Environmental Conservation Organization (ECO) and the WNC Alliance.

Benthic macroinvertebrates — including aquatic stream bottom-dwelling insects like stoneflies, caddisflies, hellgrammites, and more — are excellent indicators of the comprehensive water quality of a stream because they have limited mobility, specific habitat requirements, and distinct pollution tolerance levels. You could say that aquatic macroinvertebrates are artists — they paint a revealing picture of the overall health of aquatic ecosystems. As the metaphorical art historians of the SMIE world, experts at EQI and their partner organizations analyze the physical cues left by these tiny yet essential aquatic insect artists. The expert analyses of SMIE data across multiple watersheds help us better understand our region’s vibrant water quality history and present reality.

About EQI and MountainTrue’s partnership

Our partnership began in 1992 when EQI partnered with ECO — one of MountainTrue’s three predecessor organizations — to conduct surface water monitoring in Henderson County as part of EQI’s *Volunteer Water Information Network (VWIN) program. Thirty years (and a whole lot of water quality testing) later, MountainTrue continues to collect and deliver monthly water quality samples to EQI, and we now provide EQI with our SMIE data for analysis.

One of EQI’s primary goals is to increase public awareness about regional water quality and environmental issues across WNC. Involving the public in the SMIE data collection process allows EQI and MountainTrue to significantly expand our sampling capacity and add credibility to citizen science programs.

EQI currently coordinates SMIE sampling at 49 sites in five WNC counties (Buncombe, Madison, Haywood, Mitchell, and Yancy). EQI also provides technical support for its partner organizations using the SMIE protocol throughout WNC and Eastern TN. As an EQI partner, MountainTrue coordinates SMIE volunteer training and sampling in Henderson, Polk, and Cleveland counties. SMIE sampling efforts occur each spring and fall, typically in April and October.

Check out EQI’s Water Quality Map to see sampling locations and review data from the past 30 years of water quality monitoring!

*One of EQI’s major programs, VWIN is a volunteer-based network that has been conducting chemical surface water monitoring in WNC streams on a monthly basis since 1990. Learn more about and get involved with EQI’s VWIN work here.

Why our partnership matters

The North Carolina Division of Water Resources (NC DWR) monitors water quality throughout the state, prioritizing testing sites with existing and pressing issues. The agency’s minimal number of testing sites and low sampling frequency have both continued to decrease over time due to lack of capacity — this means that water quality in many WNC streams is not regularly monitored… That’s where we come in!

The SMIE program monitors the water quality of urban, rural, and forested streams in priority WNC watersheds and tributaries without existing watershed plans or projects. By consistently monitoring WNC streams, EQI and MountainTrue can assess long-term water quality trends that highlight the interrelated relationship between the health of local waterways and resident aquatic insect populations.

This comprehensive knowledge provides valuable insights into the effects of *pollution in our local waterways. Essentially, WNC streams with higher pollution levels have fewer aquatic insects and are less hospitable to other aquatic and riparian species, like native fish, salamanders, and streamside plants. Alternatively, the presence of pollution-sensitive aquatic insect species indicates cleaner, healthier streams with greater biodiversity.

*The most common types of pollution include:

Stormwater runoff from impervious surfaces like parking lots, roads, buildings, and other structures. Littered trash is frequently swept up in the flow of running stormwater, quickly making its way into local waterways.
Bacteria and chemical pollution, often caused by sewer and septic system overflows, agriculture runoff, and industrial effluent.
Sediment pollution, often caused by erosion of stream banks, some animal agriculture practices, and runoff from construction sites and plowed fields.
Wastewater human and animal waste, industrial effluent, and trash.

SMIE Volunteer FAQ

Q: Why should folks want to volunteer for SMIE?

It’s a super fun way to connect with the environment and your community through citizen science and shared experience. SMIE volunteers get hands-on experience with a unique and essential facet of environmentalism (aquatic insects!) and make meaningful contributions to environmental protection!

Q: What does a typical SMIE volunteer day look like?

MountainTrue or EQI’s SMIE experts meet volunteers at our sampling sites and provide all the supplies needed for a day of aquatic insect sampling: nets, buckets, filters, ice cube trays, forceps, datasheets, and waterproof waders. A group leader accompanies each volunteer group, completing all aquatic insect identification and ensuring proper SMIE protocol is followed. The data collected by SMIE volunteers is recorded and sent back to the EQI or MountainTrue labs, where it’s entered into our long-term database.

In total, sampling an SMIE site takes between one and a half to three hours. Volunteers are expected to sample at least two SMIE sites each spring and fall season. We collect our samples using the three collection methods detailed in the SMIE protocol:

Kick Net Collection

One volunteer holds the large net while another kicks just upstream. The kicking disturbs the stream bed, dislodging aquatic insects from the sediment and off of rocks before they’re picked up in the stream’s flow and caught in the net. SMIE protocol calls for two volunteers to collect macroinvertebrates from the net for 20 minutes.

Leaf Pack Collection

Fallen leaves are an important source of nutrients and shelter for many aquatic insects. As the leaves move downstream, they collect on rocks, fallen sticks and logs, and along stream banks — as they decompose, insects move in. Volunteers fill a bucket with decomposing leaves and sort through the leaf pack to find insects. Volunteers can also collect insects with a strainer used to filter water from the soggy leaves. Volunteers typically spend five minutes collecting insects from the leaf pack.

Visual Collection

A volunteer wades through the stream and examines various microhabitats for aquatic insects. Insects are typically found under rocks, along river banks where tree roots interact with the stream, and in leaf packs. They can also be found by filtering stream water through a strainer.

Q: Do I have to be trained to volunteer? Where can I sign up for a training/when is the next one?

In order to ensure our data is reliable, the SMIE program requires all volunteers to be trained. EQI and MountainTrue host SMIE training workshops twice per year in the fall and spring. Training workshops are broken into morning and afternoon sessions. Morning sessions are education-focused — volunteers learn about the basics of stream ecology, aquatic insect identification, SMIE protocol, and the history and importance of the SMIE program and water quality monitoring in general. Afternoon streamside sessions offer volunteers the chance to put their newfound knowledge to the test — volunteers are trained in all collection methods and get hands-on practice with aquatic insect identification.

Additionally, EQI offers group leader training to especially passionate SMIE volunteers. Group leaders receive additional training in SMIE protocol and insect identification.

Both EQI and MountainTrue are hosting SMIE training workshops this spring! MountainTrue will be training volunteers for Henderson and Polk counties on March 5. EQI will be training volunteers for Buncombe, Madison, Haywood, Mitchell, and Yancy counties on April 2. Stay tuned for updates on upcoming training workshops in MountainTrue’s High Country Region!

Click here to register for MountainTrue’s 3/5 training workshop!

Click here to register for EQI’s 4/2 training workshop

Have other SMIE questions? Feel free to reach out to our SMIE experts and SMIE Volunteer FAQ co-authors:

Mara Chamlee, MountainTrue's AmeriCorps Water Quality Administrator

Kaila Christensen, EQI's AmeriCorps Stream Monitoring Coordinator

MountainTrue and The Creation Care Alliance of WNC on Eco-Grief

It’s hard to keep up with the news and harder still to process.

We see images of fires raging across the American west, driving both human and non-human communities from their generational homes. We hear farmers speak, in choked sobs, of unpredictable growing seasons and lost crops. We shake with the knowledge that we are losing species at 10 to 100 times the rate considered “natural” by scientists. We witness persistent environmental racism inflicted upon BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) communities. We live in a reality in which BIPOC and low-income communities are the most affected by climate change and most frequently excluded from climate conversations.

Many of us find ourselves numb with grief and overwhelmed by the pain of the world we love. In other words, many of us are experiencing ecological grief and climate anxiety — completely reasonable responses to deeply challenging truths.

As we grapple with our changing climate and the devastation of natural spaces, we may feel fear, sadness, anger, or a sense of despondency. We may feel burnt out. It may be challenging to plan for “the next thing.” It may be difficult to do anything other than try to “fix the problem,” making it impossible to rest. This is why recognizing and processing ecological grief is so important.

Together, we can learn to navigate and be present in the world as it is — grounding our lives and our activism and perhaps discovering hope and community in the process. As Francis Weller says, “grief and love are sisters.” By honoring our grief, we can develop a clearer understanding of why we care for this world in the first place and ultimately reconnect to our love for it.

Those working at the intersections of climate and environmental justice often suffer from depression and anxiety. The impacts of climate change — like increasingly frequent and severe storms and the damage they leave in their wake — can lead to panic attacks and PTSD in impacted populations. Activists, educators, and vulnerable communities all deserve support in addressing the mental and physical health aspects of being climate-informed and climate-impacted. We and many others are striving to provide that support to all in our mountain communities who are in need and interested.

The Creation Care Alliance of WNC — MountainTrue’s faith-based program — began offering seven-week-long Eco-Grief Circles virtually in the fall of 2020 to help meet the needs of our community members struggling with ecological grief and climate anxiety. These Eco-Grief Circles are led by environmental advocates, counselors, and pastors, and sessions are inspired by the work of Francis Weller and Joanna Macy. In past meetings, participants provided mutual support, healing, and insight as they explored grief and sorrow, anxiety and fear, guilt and shame, anger, despair, and emotional integration. Participants expressed profound gratitude for being among people who could talk honestly about grief, suffering, and the ecological and social challenges of our time.

Since 2020, our grief group offerings have evolved substantially. What began as a local, online effort to offer support has blossomed into an initiative supported by various organizations and individuals internationally and throughout the United States. We’ve hosted in-person and virtual groups (serving more than 150 individuals), offered training and curriculum to support others as they lead their communities in this work, and we’ve spoken on panels for national organizations about our offerings and learnings.

Click here to learn more about eco-grief and our Eco-Grief Circles and click here to learn more about our current eco-grief efforts. Because our current Eco-Grief Circles have limited capacity, we continue to consider the next iteration of this work and how we can achieve that developing vision.

We know the need for this work continues. We know that many others are championing this necessary work in their own communities, both physical and online. We’re deeply inspired by the thought-leaders, educators, creators, innovators, and activists at:

The All We Can Save Project, whose mission is “to nurture a welcoming, connected, and leaderful climate community, rooted in the work and wisdom of women, to grow a life-giving future.” The All We Can Save Project offers an anthology of helpful and empowering resources, including resources for educators, climate emotions, and information on starting your own All We Can Save Circles.
Marine biologist and climate solutions communicator Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson — The All We Can Save book co-editor, along with Dr. Katharine Wilkinson.
Intersectional Environmentalist (IE), who provide accessible and inclusive, educational, and empowering resources — “IE is a climate justice community and resource hub centering BIPOC and historically under-amplified voices in the environmental space.”
Earthrise Studio, whose “goal is to humanize the impacts of the climate crisis by sharing the diverse experiences of those living on the frontlines of climate change and the activists who have devoted their lives to tackling it.”
The Work that Reconnects Network, whose mission is to “help people discover and experience their innate connections with each other and the self-healing powers of the web of life, transforming despair and overwhelm into inspired, collaborative action.”
The BTS Center, whose mission is to “catalyze spiritual imagination with enduring wisdom for transformative faith leadership.” The BTS Center offers various programs providing support in eco-grief and is also one of the partners supporting the Creation Care Alliance’s upcoming Eco-Grief Circles.

Have additional resources you’d like to share? Want to learn even more about our eco-grief offerings? We invite you to reach out to us! In the meantime, we’ll continue to learn from and listen to the climate activists, community educators, and creators leading the charge (including those mentioned above) so that we’ll be better equipped to engage with our communities as we process ecological grief and climate anxiety together.

Contact Us: Sarah Ogletree, Creation Care Alliance Director