Riverkeepers Unite: Strength, Resilience, and Dedication to Their Communities
Riverkeepers United, by Emily Sutton, Haw River Assembly Executive Director and Haw Riverkeeper
Riverkeepers Demonstrate Remarkable Strength, Resilience, and Dedication to Their Communities
In 2018, Hurricane Florence hit eastern North Carolina at a snail's pace, continuously dumping rain for a week on communities that were already inundated with flood waters coming from upstream. Our Cape Fear Riverkeeper, Kemp Burdette, responded to the needs of his community, sampling surface waters downstream of flooded coal ash ponds, hog waste lagoons, and industrial sites, until his house, too, was underwater. In that time, I was blown away as I watched other Riverkeepers from across the region step in to provide supplies, strategies, and coordination for an emergency response to Hurricane Florence.
Our network of Riverkeepers are uniquely equipped to not only conduct sampling, but to immediately know where the biggest pollutant concerns are and who the most impacted folks in our watersheds may be. We serve as a bridge between the impacted communities and the local, state, and federal government and regulatory agencies that have, too often, lost public trust. We have relationships with certified laboratories, sampling equipment suppliers, media outlets, and volunteer pilots who get us in the air in order to get a full picture of the devastation flood waters can bring.
Hurricane Helene was a devastating flood event that Western NC could not have prepared for. As our MountainTrue Riverkeeper program staff (French Broad, Green, Watauga, and Broad) are juggling safe housing needs for themselves and their families, they are also working tirelessly to best understand the impacts of Helene on their rivers, in order to plan for the long process of recovery.
Since Helene made landfall in the high country on September 26th, Riverkeepers and staff from Haw River Assembly, Cape Fear Riverwatch, Catawba Riverkeeper, Three Rivers Waterkeeper (PA), and Coosa Riverkeeper (AL) have been working to support the MountainTrue programs. We've coordinated calls and emails when internet and cell service was hard to come by. We've processed hundreds of bacteria samples for suspected well contamination. We've collected surface and soil samples at over a dozen sites to be run by commercial laboratories. We've helped with litter and debris clean-ups. We've scouted locations that may not have safe access to water for months to come. Most importantly, we've shown up with extra hands, monitoring equipment, and muddy waders ready to work alongside our MountainTrue Riverkeepers. I continue to be so awed by our team of dedicated, passionate, and ambitious Riverkeepers and staff.
Unfortunately, this will not be the last hurricane to bring destruction to our state. Climate change is driving the exacerbated Hurricane season and we do not have environmental protections, policies, or infrastructure in place to adequately address the climate crisis in which we currently find ourselves. Climate resiliency must be at the forefront of our work in this recovery process.
This recovery effort will take months of continuous monitoring, sampling, cleanups, and pollution investigation. In order to do that, our Riverkeepers need your support for fund sampling supplies, commercial lab costs, and protective gear. Please consider supporting our western Riverkeepers at MountainTrue at this link: https://mountaintrue.org/mountainstrong/
If you'd like to support our collective work with Waterkeepers Carolina to respond to Hurricanes statewide, please visit: https://waterkeeperscarolina.org/make-a-difference