Voice of the Haw the Haw River Assembly April 2010 P.O
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Voice of the Haw The Haw River Assembly April 2010 P.O. Box 187 • Bynum, NC 27228 • (919) 542-5790 email: [email protected] • www.hawriver.org The Haw River Festival is celebrating its 21st year of exceptional local music, environmental education activities, local art, and unique children’s activities. This event is one of the Triangle region’s premiere outdoor spring environmental festivals. After 20 years in Bynum, we are moving upriver this year to the charming village of Saxapahaw, a one-of- a-kind mill village on the edge of the Friday mighty Haw River in Alamance County! April 30th, Please join us on the first weekend in May 6:30 pm - 9:30 pm to celebrate the presence of spring, the Haw River Film Festival with a kindheartedness of community, and the fabulous dinner by the Saxapahaw General river we treasure so much! Store chefs. Suggested donation $15 Film schedule and more info available online at This year, we are also expanding the www.HawRiver.org and www.RivermillVillage.com celebration into a full weekend of events, with all proceeds and donations benefit- Saturday May 1: ting the Haw River Assembly. See the All Day - Saxapahaw Open House, with tours of new mill full schedule of events at left. construction Our May 1 Haw River Festival, with free 10 am Poker Paddle with Haw River Canoe & Kayak Co. admission, will be a day for the whole Email [email protected] to reserve a spot. family to enjoy, with fun catching critters 1 - 8 pm Haw River Festival Free admission! down at the Haw River, live music, kids’ 8 pm Dance Party at the Paperhand Puppet Studio activities & guided canoe rides, nature walks, rain garden plant sale, river Sunday May 2: monitoring, kayak raffle, farmer’s market, 8 am Peddle & Paddle with craft sales, live art auction, & much more! Haw River Canoe & Our lineup of performers features: Kayak Co. Email [email protected] Saludos Compay * Mosadi Music * to reserve a spot. John Howie * Django Haskins * 11 am History of Jimmy Magoo * Louise Kessel * the Haw River: Brunch & lecture D-Town Brass Band * with Carrboro Cynthia Crossen & the Festival Jam. Mayor Mark Chilton Saxapahaw is located about 10 miles west at the River Landing of Chapel Hill. Inn. Suggested donation: $15 For directions and info about events, visit www.HawRiver.org or www.RiverMillVillage.com. 1 HRA Board of Directors Notes from the Haw Debbie Tunnell, President, Bynum It's been a glorious spring along the Haw Ruth Lucier, Vice-President, Bynum, River, with temperatures rising so quickly Bennett College, Greensboro after cold and snowy days. How wonderful Tom Patterson, Secretary, Chapel Hill to see the blossoms along the river, from Chris Carter, Treasurer, Saxapahaw trout lilies to redbuds, and to watch the Brian Baker, Burlington arrival of birds returning to nest, including Sam Berryhill, Graham that magnificent river fisher the osprey. It Bob Brueckner, Land Comm. Chair, Durham has also been a wet winter. We had four Anne Cassebaum, Gibsonville, Elon Univ. major flood events from November through Lynn Featherstone, Chatham County March, which has helped to recharge the groundwater. Those Sharon Garbutt, Chatham County floodwaters also moved a lot of trash downriver, which was con- Rich Goldberg, Carrboro firmed by the tallies from our March Clean-Up-A-Thon. Teams Susanne Gomolski, Chapel Hill down towards Jordan Lake had a lot more trash to pick up than Nancy Hillmer, Silk Hope our upriver teams. We are excited about the new Clean Jordan Joe Jacob, Field Trip Coord. Chatham County Lake group that has formed to continue large scale trash clean- Margaret Jemison, Chatham County, Emeritus ups at the Lake. Read more about the upcoming clean-up on Mac Jordan, Saxapahaw, Emeritus May 8 (on page 4) and join in if you can. Janet MacFall, Saxapahaw, Elon University Matt Steible, Chapel Hill, Saxapahaw Walking along beautiful stretches of the river and creeks this Margaret Tiano, Chatham County winter and spring is always a joy. But what if the creek you live Cecelia Vassar, Burlington near is polluted? This is all too often the case in poorer areas, Nancy Zeman, Saxapahaw both urban and rural, where environmental injustice is more likely to occur. If polluting industries or other development are allowed to be a threat to public health and our environment HRA Staff through weak regulations or lack of enforcement, both the peo- Elaine Chiosso, HAW RIVERKEEPER®, ple and our river suffer. As Haw Riverkeeper I recently provided Executive Director comments to the state Division of Water Quality (DWQ) on the Cynthia Crossen, Haw River Watch Draft 2010 EPA 303(d) list of “Impaired Waters”. Fifty-seven sec- Donna Myers, Watershed Education tions of streams, river and lake in the Haw River watershed are Germane James, Development & Outreach on the list this time around. (To see the whole list, go to this link Kathy Buck, Office Manager at DWQ’s website: http://portal.ncdenr.org/web/wq/ps/mtu/assessment). The pollutants that cause impairment to the use of our waters Newsletter Staff are manyfold, including excess nutrients from agriculture and suburban fertilizer, heavy metals from industry and sometimes Editor: Cynthia Crossen * Contributors: Elaine the cumulative effect of urban runoff. In addition, all waters in Chiosso, Cynthia Crossen, Germane James, Donna Myers * Photos: Elaine Chiosso, Cynthia Crossen, N.C. are in Category 5-303(d) List for Mercury, due to statewide Fran DiGiano, Brandy McCandless, Efrain Ramirez, fish consumption advice for several fish species. Much of this Johnny Randall * Logos & Poster Art: Jan Burger mercury can be attributed to coal burning plants and incinera- tors. We have a lot of work to do to improve water quality in our streams. We need to find new ways to work together with all people in all parts of our watershed, and to find solutions for the streams that need our help. We also will continue to celebrate To join The Haw River Assembly the beauty that is there around us--and that inspires us to keep or renew your membership, send a check to: working for change. HRA, P.O. Box 187, Bynum, NC 27228. We hope you’ll come celebrate Individual: $20 Family: $30 the river at our incredible weekend of fun in Saxapahaw Sustaining: $50 Heron Circle: $100 & above April 30 - May 2, and be Low Income: $10 reminded of why this river and our watershed community are so great! The Haw River Assembly is a nonprofit I look forward to seeing you grassroots organization founded in 1982. there. Our mission is to protect and restore the Haw River, its tributaries, and Jordan Lake; and From the Haw, to build a community that shares this vision. Elaine Chiosso Heron tracks at Spirit Island in (919) 542-5790 www.hawriver.org HAW RIVERKEEPER® Swepsonville remind us of the life the river supports. Photo by Cynthia Crossen. 2 HAW RIVERKEEPER® Issues in the Watershed New Demand for Drinking Water from Jordan Lake spilled into Collins Creek in unknown volumes, and other problems with leaking wastewater pipes. Exactly what pollu- The ink barely had time to dry on the new Jordan Lake rules tants are in the lagoon and the other wastewater effluent? We before before local governments asked to withdraw more water would assume that nutrients from animal waste, including out of the reservoir. At the request of a local government partner- residual chemicals used in animal research, would be present. ship, the state Environmental Management Commission has begun a process that could lead to a fourth round of Jordan Lake The section of Collins Creek downstream of the UNC water supply allocations. This partnership includes the existing Research Resource Facility to the confluence with the Haw water supply allocation holders (Cary, Apex, Chatham, Durham, River was listed in 2006 on the NC 303(d) list of Impaired OWASA etc.) as well as two cities from the Neuse River basin – Streams due to impaired biological integrity, and a 2009 state Raleigh and Hillsborough. biological assessment showed that “conditions are not improving here”. The UNC Research Resource facility may The first step is to update the Cape Fear River Basin Hydrologic have contributed to the degraded water quality in Collins Model to give best information for decisions about what is the Creek. The facility operates under “deemed permitted” status safe yield for new withdrawals. The Army Corps (who built and – which is clearly not appropriate for a facility of this type, owns the lake) set a total withdrawal of 100 mgd (million gallons and with its record of problems. We joined with PRO to ask per day) for Jordan Lake, and current users are normally using DENR Secretary Freeman to revoke UNC’s non-permitted about half of that, although total Round 3 allocations were for 63 status for the facility, and were pleased to hear that the state mgd. We are urging the state and the local governments to incor- had done so. We will continue to work with PRO to urge porate the best available data to predict drought, including hypo- UNC to reduce their environmental impact as they expand thetical flow models to predict effects of climate change. Any this facility. new allocations should be based on a model that incorporates a conservative view on water supply, otherwise local governments Chatham Cary Joint Land Use Plan – could be planning for additional growth that the actual water sup- Let’s Protect Jordan Lake ply cannot sustain. The model should incorporate ecological flow requirements. We must meet key ecological flow needs based on Chatham County Commissioners and the Cary Town Council real-time environmental conditions, as well as predict the impact have been discussing for several years a joint plan for the of any new allocations for water withdrawal on water quality.