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Annual Holiday T Shirt Sale

This December, HRA’s office is once again transformed into a holiday shop with many years of colorful Haw River shirts for sale, all designed by Clyde Jones, Bynum’s world famous folk artist. We have vintage shirts from $5 – $15, as well as our brand new “Dragonfly” shirt at $25 (youth shirts for $20) on 100% organic cotton by T.S.Designs.  Copies of the beautiful new “River” art book and “Down Along the Haw”, history of the Haw River by Anne Cassebaum, will also be for sale (both are $25 with proceeds going to HRA).

When: M-F now through Dec. 21  from 10am-4 pm

Saturday,  12/10  and 12/17  from 10am-2pm

 

And in Pittsboro’s drinking water

The Haw River Assembly continues to be concerned about the presence of 1,4-Dioxane in Pittsboro’s drinking water, which it takes from the Haw River.  1,4-Dioxane is an industrial solvent that has been entering the Haw River via upriver municipal wastewater treatment plants for many years. Monitoring by scientists has shown it to be in high levels in the Haw River. Traditional treatment methods for drinking water do not remove this contaminant.  There has recently been some progress in the reduction of the contamination in the river, and in a decision by the Town of  Pittsboro to upgrade its treatment methods.

(Dr. Knappe and students taking samples of Haw River water from Bynum Bridge)

Dr. Detlef Knappe of NC State University presented his latest research  on this industrial solvent, to Pittsboro’s Board of Commissioners on Mon. Nov. 28. Latest data shows that the level in  PIttsboro’s drinking water, (which uses the Haw River as its source) is  now at lower levels, though still too high according to new EPA guidance.  It appears  that the spotlight on this issue has resulted in lower amounts being flushed by industries into upriver wastewater treatment systems. More needs to be done to stop this pollution at the source, but in the meantime Pittsboro has decided to safeguard its drinking water by adding activated carbon to the treatment methods, which will better protect public health. Read more on this issue in “Tainted Waters“,  in NC Health News

Factsheet about 1,4-Dioxane online.at the EPA website.

General Assembly continues to delay Jordan Lake rules

The state environmental department announced on May 5  that it will discontinue the SolarBee project after 21 months of data indicated no significant improvement in water quality.  We applaud the end to this expensive and ridiculous folly.   The latest bad idea that emerged this summer from the NC General Assembly was to study the use of mussels to filter the waters of Jordan Lake – even though mussel populations have plummeted in the Haw River due to pollution and sediment.  That idea has vanished only to be replaced by more delays of the rules and more wasted money on studies on how to find a magical solution to treat pollution in the lake instead of reducing it at the source.  The legislature needs to stop stalling and just re-instate the rules that will improve water quality in Jordan Lake.

May 20 , 2015    Wake County Superior Court today stayed a constitutional challenge to the state’s Mining and Energy Commission by the Haw River Assembly and a Lee County landowner pending a decision in the appeal of McCrory v. Berger or until further order of the court. During the stay, the MEC is enjoined from accepting or processing permit applications for drilling units and from creating any drilling units. This effectively reinstates the moratorium on fracking in North Carolina.  Read the full PRESS RELEASE about the injunction. Read the full Haw River v. MEC court order.

The lawsuit against the MEC charges that the commission violates the separation of powers provision of the North Carolina Constitution because a majority of the commission’s members are political appointees by the legislature, and that the fracking rules, created by an unconstitutional commission, are therefore null and void. (Read the  press release concerning the lawsuit and the full  legal complaint)

“Today’s decision stopped any immediate harm to North Carolina residents from a commission formed by the state legislature in violation of the separation of powers firmly established in our state constitution pending further court deliberations,” said John Suttles, the senior attorney at the Southern Environmental Law Center who represented the Haw River Assembly and Lee County property owner Keely Wood Puricz before the court.

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