As spring brings new life across the Yadkin River Basin and we celebrated Earth Day last month, we are reminded of how much the health of our local waterways impacts everything around us — from the drinking water we rely on, to the land we farm, to the places we gather with family and friends.

Yadkin Riverkeeper has learned Alcoa has received a permit from Stanly County to begin demolishing potentially contaminated smelter buildings at the Badin Business Park. Yadkin Riverkeeper Edgar Miller and the Concerned Citizens for West Badin expressed concern to the NC Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) about the demolition proceeding under the facility’s expired stormwater permit and without a final remedy in place for the cleanup of hazardous waste disposed of at the site. In response to these concerns and others from the West Badin community about the impact on air and water quality, DEQ held a meeting to share their plans for limited oversight of the demolition.

On Earth Day, April 22, seven members of the Waterkeepers Carolina coalition presented oral comments regarding the Department of Environmental Quality’s (DEQ) Triennial Review of the state’s surface water quality standards. Nicole Eastman, Yadkin Riverkeeper’s (YRK) Riverkeeper assistant, presented comments on behalf of the organization to express our support for an E. coli standard in recreational waters and our concerns with the lack of regulation of other contaminants such as cyanotoxins.

Yadkin Riverkeeper Edgar Miller and YRK Board President Steve Ilderton recently attended a ribbon cutting ceremony at Reynolds American’s Operation Center (ROC) in Tobaccoville for its first of a kind WaterHub recycling facility. The new modular “micro” water reclamation facility will recycle more than 60 million gallons of wastewater produced at the ROC annually, reducing its wastewater discharge my nearly 90 percent and its demand for potable water by nearly 40 percent. While the water is considered clean enough to drink, it will initially only be used in cooling towers, boilers and landscape irrigation systems at the manufacturing site. According to company officials, 60 million gallons a year of water could supply on average 550 households.

Forsyth County Creek Week is a county-wide celebration of fresh water, one of the world’s most important and limited resources. The week-long extravaganza is sponsored by many local businesses and organizations, including Yadkin Riverkeeper. Events are organized and hosted by non-profit organizations, townships, local churches and community programs, Forsyth County utilities, Stormwater Smart and conservation groups, like YRK.

On March 18, Yadkin Riverkeeper Edgar Miller and Riverkeeper assistant Nicole Eastman joined SouthWings pilot Holliday Obrecht, III for a flight from the Davidson County Airport up the South Yadkin River and across the Yadkin at the historic village of Rockford into Surry County. It continued to Pilot Mountain and the Ararat River back down the Yadkin to the airport. The flight covered 120 miles and more than 600 square miles of the South Yadkin, Ararat and Yadkin watersheds. The primary purpose of the flight was to assess potential threats and restoration opportunities on the South Yadkin River as part of YRK’s work to develop a watershed restoration plan for the South Yadkin.

On Wednesday, March 19th five local groups including Yadkin Riverkeeper (YRK) volunteered to lead an activity for Winston-Salem high school students. Piedmont Environmental Alliance (PEA) coordinated this event for almost 100 high school students from Carver High School, Winston-Salem Preparatory Academy, and Kennedy High School. We set up stations at Winston Lake focused on a variety of environmental topics. For example, the Audubon Society led a birding activity, other groups conducted water and macroinvertebrate sampling, and Yadkin Riverkeeper led a discussion on environmental justice and watershed protection.

Beginning in January 2025, Yadkin Riverkeeper established a new part-time position dedicated to promoting YRK’s advocacy agenda. By definition, the word advocacy is the act or process of supporting a cause or proposal; as an organization whose mission is to protect and enhance the Yadkin Pee-Dee River Basin, we have many important causes to advocate for! Former Water Quality Specialist, Stephanie Stephens has taken on this role, as it is a natural transition from monitoring and analyzing data collected from High Rock Lake, working with the Concerned Citizens of West Badin, Duke University and North Carolina Environmental Justice Network (NCEJN) in their fight to remove legacy pollution from Alcoa’s site on Badin Lake and last year’s nonpartisan Get Out the Vote effort.

We are so excited to get back on the water with you. Thanks to cooperative efforts with Piedmont Land Conservancy who is providing boat storage for our kayak trailer and boats, Yadkin Riverkeeper will be able to be more responsive and capable of the demands of a paddling program. Below is a list of scheduled paddle trips for the year. There are some old favorites, some newer trail segments, and some that are just completely exploratory as to whether they will work or not. Pick a trip and join the YRK community on the water. Check our website in the near future for more details and registration information.

The recent meeting of Waterkeepers Carolina (our network of NC & SC waterkeepers) in Conway, SC, afforded me the opportunity to visit Georgetown, SC, where the Yadkin Pee Dee and Waccamaw Rivers join to form Winyah Bay before meetings the Atlantic Ocean. I had never been to Georgetown or the mouth of the Rivers at Winyah Bay, despite many years of traveling with my family to nearby Myrtle Beach as a kid. Who knew we were just following the general route of the Yadkin Pee Dee River from central NC to the SC coast.

At our Annual Membership Meeting on January 29th, Yadkin Riverkeeper members voted in six new board members for 2025. Please read more about them below! To view our full list of board members, please click HERE.

The new year used to be celebrated with the old man hobbling to the end of the year and the precocious baby emerging from the start of the new year. I just don’t see many references to those icons as much anymore. To make up for that, I present you with a tale of two hats. Knowing that paddle hats get abused, I kept one hat for more “formal” occasions. Yes, when you are the Yadkin River State Trail (YRST) Coordinator, you have a formal river hat and a work river hat. Where one hat was protected and kept new as the day it came in the box and only used for special occasions, the “work hat” came to the end of the year looking like the old man with a cane. I present this as a visual representation of how much was accomplished on the Yadkin River State Trail in 2024. This past year, Yadkin Riverkeeper:

Staff from Yadkin Riverkeeper attended a meeting held on January 23rd to support the Concerned Citizens of West Badin as they shared with the NC Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) the years of injustice they have experienced due to Alcoa’s toxic operations. Alcoa is an industrial producer of aluminum that operated an aluminum smelting plant in Badin, NC until 2007. The operations resulted in the dumping of hazardous waste in Badin Lake and the placement of an unlined landfill in the town. The Concerned Citizens of West Badin (CCWB) explained the environmental injustices their community has faced while working in the dangerous potrooms and being exposed to the hazardous spent potliner and contaminants they dumped in the landfill.

North Carolina State Parks has a goal for State Trails of permanence and foreseeable longevity. They are working towards this goal by assuring a long-term commitment with the landowner of the accesses that are part of the trail. When the level of commitment and certain criteria are met that access is “designated” as part of the trail and formally approved by the State Trail Committee and the Secretary of the NC Department of Natural and Cultural Resources (DNCR). Once designated, that access can be recommended with full confidence and its management will be dependable for the foreseeable future. In return the state, through Yadkin Riverkeeper as the YRST’s official nonprofit part, can provide grants to improve the site to the managing agency.

Since the spring, YRK has been working to develop the South Yadkin River watershed restoration plan with the goal of identifying pollution sources, working with local stakeholders to determine water quality concerns, and recommending implementation of specific restoration and conservation projects.

At the end of October, the Yadkin Riverkeeper (YRK) team completed the final nutrient sampling and analysis on High Rock Lake (HRL) for the 2024 algae growing season, which spans from April-October. Over the past seven years, Yadkin Riverkeeper has conducted nutrient and bacteria sampling to determine the health of HRL in various regions of the upper lake, middle channel and lower lake. Over the last three years, YRK sampling has been focused on NC Department of Environmental Quality’s (NCEQ) site YAD152C, located in the middle channel of HRL near the mouth of Crane Creek. NCDEQ has identified this site as the point of compliance for the HRL chlorophyll-a standard.

Your past support enabled Yadkin Riverkeeper (YRK) to expand our Waterkeeper Alliance territory to include the Kerr Scott Reservoir and upper Yadkin River watershed. We’re also proud to be among the 25% of Riverkeepers worldwide meeting all 14 quality standards of the Waterkeeper Alliance. This progress, along with increased funding, allowed us to add two full-time positions and a part-time water quality specialist, significantly boosting our capacity to monitor water quality, respond to pollution incidents, and enhance the Yadkin River State Trail (YRST). 

At its board meeting in Milwaukee, WI, on September 27, the Waterkeeper Alliance (WKA) board unanimously approved YRK’s request to expand its WKA jurisdiction to include Kerr Scott Reservoir and the upper River in western Wilkes and eastern Caldwell Counties, to the river’s headwaters in Watauga County. Cape Fear Riverkeeper Kemp Burdette, who serves on the WKA Board, made the motion to approve the request.

On October 10th, Yadkin Riverkeeper Assistant, Nicole Eastman spoke at a public hearing held by the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality’s Division of Water Resources (NCDEQ, DWR) as part of a comment period for a proposed reclassification of specific waters in the Yadkin-Pee Dee River Basin.

With the bright autumnal sun making its plumage more vibrant than usual, the Great Blue Heron waits in the shallows until the group is nearly past before spreading its wings to angerly move to a more peaceful location.  A more peaceful location is easy to find on Tuckertown Reservoir during the month of October. Most people have put away their boats in September and the only boats we saw were duck hunters when we were around the boat ramps. The fall light, the wildlife, the peaceful setting, but most of all the company we were in made for a most enjoyable afternoon.