Yadkin Riverkeeper Media Coverage

GUEST COLUMN: Alcoa should lose control of Yadkin waters

Janet Loew — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 01:16:19 GMT

(from The High Point Enterprise)
An Alcoa front group, The Water Front Sportsman Environmental Investigation Coalition, which has no website, board of directors, active membership or legitimate 501(c)3 nonprofit status, is misleading the public about the Yadkin River relicensing while spreading Alcoa propaganda to mask the company’s toxic legacy.

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Protecting the river

Janet Loew — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 01:37:19 GMT

(from Winston-Salem Journal: Letters to the Editor)
I want to set the record straight following the May 21 letter "Yadkin Riverkeeper."
In my 18-month tenure as Yadkin Riverkeeper, we have worked to address multiple threats facing the river. I serve on the High Rock Lake Technical Advisory Committee, as well as the Winston-Salem Stormwater Appeals Board. I work with community groups to prevent industries, such as Fibrowatt, from polluting our air and water.

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County severs ties with Fibrowatt

Janet Loew — Fri, 28 May 2010 19:40:43 GMT

(The Mount Airy News)
In a surprise vote that took place before presentations from Fibrowatt opponents last night, the Surry County Commissioners voted unanimously to stop negotiations with Fibrowatt and pursue other businesses for the Elkin site.

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Brockovich to discuss Yadkin River at WFU

Janet Loew — Fri, 28 May 2010 19:39:56 GMT

(from The-Dispatch.com)
Environmental activist and legal clerk Erin Brockovich will be at Wake Forest University in late June to deliver a speech about the Yadkin Hydroelectric Project. Yadkin Riverkeeper Dean Naujoks said in a press release Brockovich’s presentation will back his efforts to secure passage of the Yadkin River Trust bill, currently in the North Carolina legislature, and oppose Alcoa’s efforts to sign a new relicensing deal that would allow the company to keep control of the river.
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(from the Salisbury Pos
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Official's efforts involving Alcoa raise questions

Janet Loew — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 23:48:40 GMT

(from the Salisbury Post)
A state senator and an advocate for the Yadkin River have requested that Larry Jones, president of the High Rock Lake Association, be investigated for possible lobbying violations. Sen. Stan Bingham (R-Davidson) and Yadkin Riverkeeper Dean Naujoks say Jones may have lobbied illegally for Alcoa in the General Assembly last year. They sent a request to N.C. Secretary of State Elaine Marshall in March calling for an official investigation.

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Alcoa deal raises questions, riverkeeper says

Janet Loew — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 23:30:23 GMT

(from the Winston-Salem Journal)
The Yadkin Riverkeeper is accusing the president of the High Rock Lake Association of potentially violating state law by illegally lobbying for Alcoa. Riverkeeper Dean Naujoks said yesterday that the state is investigating Larry Jones, the president of the association. Jones said yesterday that he has not heard from the secretary of state, the office that would investigate such a violation. A spokeswoman for the office couldn't comment on potential lobbying violations. That information can only be made public through a court order, she said.

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Details fuzzy on investigation into Alcoa and president of lake group

Janet Loew — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 23:38:59 GMT

(From the Lexington Dispatch)
Yadkin Riverkeeper Dean Naujoks has requested an investigation by the Secretary of State into what he claims have been illegal lobbying practices on behalf of Alcoa by High Rock Lake Association President Larry Jones.

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Questionable land transfer by Alcoa comes under attack

Janet Loew — Thu, 13 May 2010 16:37:48 GMT

(from Stanly News and Press)
N.C. Senator Stan Bingham of Davidson County and Yadkin Riverkeeper Dean Naujoks have asked the state to investigate the possibly illegal lobbying efforts on behalf of Alcoa in the ongoing dispute concerning the Yadkin Hydroelectric Project.

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Yadkin Riverkeeper completes 23-day Tour de Yadkin

Janet Loew — Sat, 08 May 2010 23:27:50 GMT

(from the Courier-Tribune)
The Yadkin Riverkeeper, Dean Naujoks, completed his 26-day, 193-mile paddle of the Yadkin River on May 1. More than 100 people, including Sen. Stan Bingham, R-Davidson, and several members of the Stanly County Board of Commissioners, marked the official end of the “Tour de Yadkin” with a rally at the Swift Island Boat Launch on Lake Tillery.

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Halted development projects creating hazards for waterways as runoff clogs streams with silt

Janet Loew — Fri, 07 May 2010 21:42:36 GMT

(AP article in LA Times, CBS News, Baltimore Sun, Chicago Tribune)
Residents in a subdivision of two-story brick homes near the North Carolina state line say they were promised roads and ball fields and tennis courts. But the developer has vanished and the neighbors never came so, when the rains do, the ground crumbles.

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End of riverkeeper's tour nears: Rally on Saturday will celebrate trip on Yadkin River

Janet Loew — Fri, 07 May 2010 21:38:19 GMT

(from the Winston-Salem Journal)
Dean Naujoks' 230-mile journey down the Yadkin River is nearing the end.
As of today, Naujoks, the Yadkin Riverkeeper, has 11 miles remaining on his trip, which started April 7 with a five-mile paddle across Kerr Scott Reservoir in Wilkes County. Since then, he has paddled in the shadow of Pilot Mountain, past the wineries of Yadkin County and through pristine sections of the rural Piedmont.

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Yadkin journey raises awareness

Janet Loew — Thu, 06 May 2010 02:12:06 GMT

(from the Salisbury Post)
As he has paddled down the Yadkin River and its lakes, even Dean Naujoks has been taken aback by its beauty and people's love for this lifeline through the region.

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Alcoa must agree to environmental investigation

Janet Loew — Thu, 06 May 2010 01:59:38 GMT

(from the Stanly News and Press, Op Ed)
Now that Alcoa has announced the permanent closure of its Badin Works smelting plant, the company must allow for the proper and necessary environmental investigation of the site before it runs away with profits from our water and leaves us with a toxic mess.

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Riverkeeper Travels Yadkin Ahead of 40th Earth Day

Janet Loew — Thu, 06 May 2010 01:42:09 GMT

(from Fox8 News)
The Yadkin Riverkeeper is halfway through a nearly month-long kayak trip down the Yadkin River, a journey he hopes will draw attention to the river's beauty.

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Documenting the story of the Yadkin River

Janet Loew — Thu, 06 May 2010 01:15:29 GMT

(from the Elkin Tribune)
The beautiful photograph of Yadkin Riverkeeper Dean Naujoks during his 230-journey paddling the river that ran on the front page of Monday's Elkin Tribune and subsequently appeared online on its Web site was taken by freelance photographer Christine Rucker.

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Chamber ‘rescinds’ Fibrowatt support

Janet Loew — Thu, 06 May 2010 01:04:23 GMT

(from the Elkin Tribune)
The Yadkin Valley Chamber of Commerce’s Executive Committee voted to “rescinded” its support of Fibrowatt during its regular monthly meeting last Thursday.

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Fibrowatt loses an endorsement: Yadkin Valley chamber comes out against building incinerator near Elkin

Janet Loew — Thu, 06 May 2010 01:00:07 GMT

(from the Winston-Salem Journal)
The Yadkin Valley Chamber of Commerce has backed off its previous support of a planned Fibrowatt plant near Elkin that would generate electricity by burning poultry waste.

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Up close: Dean Naujoks

Janet Loew — Thu, 06 May 2010 00:44:56 GMT

(The Business Journal of the Greater Triad Area)
For Dean Naujoks, the tiny, newly renovated office on East Third Street in downtown Winston-Salem is an important step for his organization, the Yadkin Riverkeeper.

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Down the Yadkin: Riverkeeper Dean Naujoks trading his office for a kayak to paddle the river for a month and get to know the area and its residents

Janet Loew — Thu, 06 May 2010 00:06:42 GMT

(from the Winston-Salem Journal)
Dean Naujoks is getting out of the office and into a kayak for a month-long tour of a river that he has spent the last 1½ years trying to protect.

Naujoks, the Yadkin Riverkeeper, begins the first leg of his trip down the Yadkin today with a paddle across Kerr Scott Reservoir to Bandit's Roost in Wilkes County.

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From CNN's iReport-Environmental group plans trip down The Yadkin River

Christine Kitchens-Frost — Sun, 28 Mar 2010 20:24:29 GMT

The Yadkin calmly fascinates."

--The Rev. Douglas L. Rights, 'A Voyage Down the Yadkin-Great Peedee River,' 1928.

By Andy Matthews

Editor

www.yadkinvalleynews.com

Amatthews2007@yahoo.com

More than three quarters of a century ago, a writer traveled down the Yadkin River from North Wilkesboro to Georgetown, S.C. where it empties into the Atlantic Ocean. The purpose of the trip was to chronicle life along the Yadkin, leaving behind a journal that told about the river's abundant natural resources, flourishing wildlife, its newly industrialized cities, and a host of characters that populated the river basin.

In 1982, a second group of environmentalists decided to duplicate Wrights' trip, updating readers of The Winston-Salem Journal about the changes along the Yadkin, describing in vivid detail the environmental threats posed by new development and reminding those who depend upon the river that it is an economic lifeline and way of life.

"Individuals can only do so much to protect the river; an individual, for example, has little power to stop an industry from dumping toxic wastes into it," Floyd Rogers, a reporter for The Winston-Salem Journal said in his 1982 book, 'Yadkin Passage.' "But an individual can put his beer can in a trash bin, not in the river."

Now, as residential, industrial and commercial development continue to encroach upon the Yadkin River and its tributaries, a new coalition of environmentalists are poised to paddle their way down the Yadkin. Their mission is the same — to observe the abundant wildlife, take in the majestic scenery, camp along the riverbanks, and determine the immediate and long-term threats to the river's water quality.

“This is part documentary and part activist in its efforts,” said Dean Naujoks, the Yadkin Riverkeeper. “It is designed to capture people’s interest and raise awareness about the river among people in North Carolina who depend on it for drinking water – including more than 200,000 people in Winston-Salem alone."

Like those before him, Naujoks and members of the Yadkin Riverkeeper association, will begin their journey at the headwaters of the Yadkin in Blowing Rock. From there, they will travel roughly 185 miles and 25 days, from the rolling hills of Northwest North Carolina, past the populous Piedmont Triad, to Lake Tillery near the North Carolina/South Carolina border. There will be numerous stops along the way, giving volunteers and observers a chance to see how the Yadkin unfolds from a relatively small stream in the Blue Ridge Mountains to a large waterway by the time it becomes part of the Yadkin Pee Dee River basin.

Naujoks said he hopes the trip will educate the estimated 1.6 million people who live along the river basin how important it is to preserve a vital natural resource like the Yadkin, which is the state's second largest river, including 5,862 stream miles, 22,988 lake acres, spanning 21 counties and 93 municipalities, and totaling about 7,221 square miles.

Naujoks has been an outspoken critic of plans for Fibrowatt's LLC's proposed power plant, which would be built in southwestern Surry County, near Elkin along the Yadkin. Naujoks worries that pollutants from the plant will damage the river's water quality. Naujoks has also lobbied against Alcoa's proposal to receive another 50-year federal license for a hydroelectric project, which he says has already led to multiple contaminations in the water and land around the company's dams.

In addition to environmental education, the 'Tour de Yadkin' will feature festivities along the way, including an April 6 kickoff date in Blowing Rock and other events at the Kerr Scott Reservoir, Carolina Heritage Vineyard and Winery and Crater Park, both in Elkin. Participants can also 'purchase a mile' of the Yadkin River, saying they sponsored that part of the journey. The trip concludes May 1 with a family picnic at Lake Tillery.

For more information on the trip, go to http://www.yadkinriverkeeper.org/riverkeeper.