Green Riverkeeper Archives

Liquidlogic Exclusive MountainTrue Factory Tour

Join MountainTrue’s Green Riverkeeper for an exclusive tour of the Liquidlogic Kayaks production factory led by Co-Founder Shane Benedict. We’ll meet at the factory for a full behind the scenes tour during production hours to see how kayaks are made from bow to stern, learning about the local company’s history, sustainability practices, and how they have partnered with the Green Riverkeeper along the way. Then we’ll head down the street to a local brewery, Blue Ghost Brewing, to have lunch and a beer (provided) and learn more about what MountainTrue is doing to protect the places we share and how you can get more involved.

**Space is limited to the first 20 people, so get your ticket before it sells out!

Success Story: MountainTrue’s Green Riverkeeper Helps Avoid Shooting Range Next to Green River Game Land

The proposed shooting range brought water quality, public input concerns

We did it! After a week of whirlwind organizing, residents of Saluda and the greater Henderson County area are celebrating victory as Hendersonville County Commissioners have promised to back away from building a proposed shooting range and law enforcement training center. The facility would have been built on a 99-acre lot on Macedonia Road and bordering the Green River Game Land.

“As our region continues to grow, we have to consider what type of development we want to see and how we can strike a balance between the influx of people moving to our beautiful area and the protection of our special places and rural character,” says Gray Jernigan, MountainTrue’s Green Riverkeeper. “That takes careful planning and an engaged citizenry who will put their foot down to stop a bad idea in its tracks when necessary.”

Threat to Community, Public Lands

And why was this an issue MountainTrue cared about? “We ha[d] lots of concerns about lead contamination and water quality, noise impacts on wildlife, sedimentation from land clearing and development, and potential steep slope development and landslide risk,” Gray told MountainTrue members in an email and the Hendersonville Lightning in an interview. The wetlands and streams at the proposed site drain directly to the Green River, which is also a water supply watershed, and lead contamination from bullets posed a water quality threat.

Residents pointed out that they were opposed to the site chosen for the shooting range, and not to shooting itself. Resident Carl McMurray said, “I’m a gun owner. I’m a pretty avid shooter. That’s not the issue. My issue is with the traffic and noise.”

Put On Notice

A small number of Saluda residents unexpectedly received letters from the Sheriff this month informing them that their properties would be affected by the construction of the project. The letters invited them to an information session at the proposed site on Saturday, April 14, but so many people were expected to attend that the Sheriff moved the location of the meeting to the courthouse in Hendersonville late Friday afternoon. Again, only a handful of residents were notified of the change.

Gray became active in opposing the shooting range early on, coordinating with local residents and mobilizing MountainTrue members. He postponed a river cleanup on Saturday to attend the information session and invited paddlers, but the session happening inside was not open to the public or the media. Gray joined other residents in expressing concern about the public input process, telling the Hendersonville Times-News, “It seems strange that a project that implicates public land would be closed to the public.”

“More Emails Than Residents of Saluda”

The community regrouped for a meeting the following Monday, April 16 to keep organizing. A couple hundred people turned out to the Saluda Fire and Rescue Department to share their concerns about the project and plan the next steps for their response. They encouraged their fellow community members to flood the Henderson County Commissioners with emails, and Commissioner Grady Hawkins later said he had received “more emails than there are residents of Saluda” opposing the shooting range.

Two days later, Saluda turned out in force again for a County Commissioners meeting on April 18. The shooting range project was not on the agenda, but when the Commissioners saw the turnout of concerned citizens, they quickly amended the schedule to include discussion. This was the first time that County officials talked publicly about the project, which likely would not have happened without citizens getting involved.

Success, Less Than A Week Later

Over 70 MountainTrue members and citizens submitted public comments to the Commissioners at the meeting, discussing potential impacts on the environment, their communities, local businesses, and quality of life. At the end of several hours of public comment, the Commissioners reiterated their commitment to back away from pursuing this site.

Henderson County is still under contract on the property and has an option to purchase it until the end of May. The County had already signed contracts with inspectors and consultants to prepare a due diligence report on the property, so the Commissioners decided to fulfill those obligations and will wait to receive the report at their May 16 meeting before officially abandoning the project.

Want To Learn More About Our Work in Saluda and Henderson County?

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Riverkeepers Respond to Duke’s Coal Ash Dishonesty

Action Expired

Nov. 8 2017

Over the weekend, Duke Energy Spokesperson Danielle Peoples responded to MountainTrue’s paddle protest on the Broad River with multiple untrue statements about the dangers of coal ash and the extent of Duke’s pollution at their power plant in Cliffside, NC [“Battle over coal ash continues in Cliffside” (11/5/17)]. In a Letter-to-the-Editor for the Shelby Star, Western North Carolina’s Riverkeepers stand up for the truth on coal ash and our rivers and set the record straight.

It’s time for Duke Energy to come clean on coal ash pollution. In a recent article that ran in the Shelby Star [“Battle over coal ash continues in Cliffside” (11/5/17)], Duke Energy spokesperson Danielle Peoples made numerous misleading statements about the dangers of coal ash and the ongoing pollution that is happening at Cliffside.

First, Peoples tells the Star that Duke has “finished excavating the basin earlier this year.” Problem solved, right? Well, not exactly. There are three ash basins at Cliffside, and Duke Energy has only excavated its smallest one. The truth is that 90% of coal ash stored in ponds at that site remain in its two unlined pits, which continue to pollute area groundwater and the Broad River.

Inexplicably, People’s claim about Cliffside is compounded by a glaring error in the Star’s reporting — that Duke Energy has closed all of its coal ash ponds around the state. This isn’t true at the Allen and Marshall plants near Charlotte, the Belews Creek plant near Winston-Salem, and it isn’t true at Cliffside where Duke Energy continues to operate a very active pond that they sluice wet ash into and discharge wastewater out of every day. We know this because this is how they operate under their current wastewater permit, and that doesn’t count all the additional illegal discharges that we’ve found.

What does the future have in store for Cliffside? Duke says that capping these unlined pits will solve the problem, but if the company has its way the remaining coal ash will be left sitting in up to 50 feet* of groundwater, continuing to pollute our groundwater and the river for centuries.

The most dangerous of Peoples’ assertions is that coal ash is nonhazardous. Here she hides behind a regulatory and legal technicality. While it is true that the Environmental Protection Agency declined to regulate coal ash as “hazardous waste” under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, the EPA was equally clear that “there is significant potential for [coal ash ponds] to leach hazardous constituents into groundwater, impair drinking water supplies and cause adverse impacts on human health and the environment.” The EPA has set health limits on the toxic heavy metals and other constituents found in the coal ash at Cliffside because they are dangerous to people.

Here in North Carolina, when a small business owner or company makes a mess, we expect them to clean it up. Duke Energy is the largest utility company in the country – they can handle it.

David Caldwell, Broad River Alliance Hartwell Carson, French Broad Riverkeeper Gray Jernigan, Green Riverkeeper Andy Hill, Watauga Riverkeeper

*The original version of this post said “60 feet” instead of “50 feet” of groundwater. The error has been corrected.

Want to get involved? Support our petition to make Duke Energy clean up their coal ash pollution of the Broad River and sign up for clean water action opportunities here.