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Eric Chance


Water Quality Associate for the Appalachia Water Watch team




Coal Ash Pond Failure in Wimington NC


Wednesday, September 29th, 2010 | Posted by Eric Chance



Aerial Photo of Progress Energy’s Sutton Plant (Left) and its 135 Acre Ash Pond (Right)


Right here in North Carolina a coal ash pond at Progress Energy’s Sutton Plant near Wilmington was breached on Monday.

Monday’s heavy rains may have been a factor in the failure, but there is another wave of heavy rains coming to the region today and tomorrow that may cause even more problems.

for more information on the spill you can check out the Wilmington Star’s article here.

Cape Fear Riverkeeeper, Kemp Burdette is investigating the situation. We will post updates as they are available.

This comes spill at a time when the EPA is considering regulating coal ash as a hazardous waste, in the wake of the Kingston Tennessee Spill that released over 1 billion gallons of toxic coal ash into the Clinch, Emory and Tennessee Rivers two years ago.

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Operation Medicine Cabinet-Drug Take Back Day Oct. 2


Monday, September 27th, 2010 | Posted by Eric Chance



Do you have outdated or unused prescription drugs, over the counter medications, syringes or other medical supplies? Come drop them off at the sponsored take-back centers in Ashe and Watauga Counties on three different days this October. Any prescription or over the counter drugs will be accepted, no questions asked.

On Friday October 1 drugs will be collected at the Plemmons Student Union on the Appalachian State University campus from 10:00am to 2:00pm.

Across Watauga county drugs will be collected on Saturday October 2, from 10:00am to 2:00pm, in conjunction with Hazardous Household Waste Collection Day. Take-back locations will be available at the Foscoe Fire Department, and the three Food Lion stores in Watauga County: the Highway 321 store in Boone, the Highway 421 Deep Gap store, and the Blowing Rock store.

In Ashe County the collection will be held on October 16. Medications can be dropped from off from 10:00am to 2:00pm at the Jefferson Food Lion, the West Jefferson Life Store Bank at the Wal-Mart and at the former Northwest Foods in Warrensville.

Operation Medicine Cabinet has been a huge success in the high country and has continued to expand. The Operation Medicine Cabinet drug collection day in May collected over 188,000 pills and 20 gallons of liquid medication.

Drugs Collected at the May Operation Medicine Cabinet


For more information about the event please visit drugtakebackday.com or to learn more about previous events visit the Watauga Riverkeeper Blog.

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Join the Watauga River Cleanup Saturday Sept. 25


Wednesday, September 22nd, 2010 | Posted by Eric Chance



Volunteers Kayaking with Trash at last Years Big Sweep


Come out and join us this Saturday (September 25) to help clean up the Watauga River. Starting at 9am groups will be picking up trash from the Watauga River from Foscoe all the way to the Guy Ford Road Bridge, covering a total of nearly 30 miles of stream. Because of extremely low water levels this year, all of the clean up teams will be land based, since there isn’t enough water to float canoes.

Last year 172 volunteers cleaned up 6,000 pounds of trash! This year we hope to get even more junk.

For more pictures and a video from last year’s clean up visit the Watauga Riverkeeper blog.

If you are interested in helping out or want some more information please contact Eric at App Voices (eric@appvoices.org 828-262-1500) or Wendy at the Agricultural Extension Office (Wendy_Patoprsty@ncsu.edu 828-264-3061).

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Boone Town Council hears about Fish Kill and Coal-Tar Sealant Ban Tonight


Tuesday, September 21st, 2010 | Posted by Eric Chance



Fish Killed by Coal-Tar Based Asphalt Sealant in Hodges Creek this Summer


Please join the Watauga Riverkeeper at the Boone Town Council Meeting this Tuesday (September 21) evening at 7:00 pm to show your support for a ban on coal tar based asphalt sealants. The Watauga Riverkeeper, Donna Lisenby will be giving a presentation to the town council about coal tar based asphalt sealants and why they should be banned and we would love to have lots of people there who support the ban. The meeting will be at the Council Chambers on Blowing Rock Road.

The dangerous toxicity of coal tar based sealants was brought to our attention this summer when sealant was applied in the rain at the BB&T bank on Hwy. 105 in Boone, causing a fish kill in Hodges Creek. For more information and to see a video of the destruction please visit the Riverkeeper Blog.

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