Have you ever seen mud running off a construction site or the French Broad River chocolate brown?
RiverLink’s Muddy Water Watch program is bringing a lot more attention to these sites. Over 35 volunteers from Henderson, Buncombe, Madison, and Yancey Counties are now patrolling their neighborhoods to look for sediment running off construction sites. These sites are responsible for the severe degradation of our waterways and have made sediment the number one polluter in the French Broad Watershed. Muddy Water Watch is a state-wide initiative to reduce sediment pollution by providing training materials to help volunteers understand erosion control violations, and how they can monitor and improve erosion control violations.
The work of these volunteers has resulted in dozens of polluted sites being cleaned up and tracked online at imrivers. This site allows the public to see the severity and wide spread problem that is caused from failing erosion control measures. This pictures and reports on this site have resulted in several enforcement actions to clean up sediment violations.
What: Muddy Water Watch Training
When: November 18, December 2nd and 9th from 5:30-8:30pm
Where: Blue Ridge Community College
Why: To clean up our waterways
RiverLink is again gearing up to train another round of volunteers to become Muddy Water Watchers. The first of three trainings starts November 18th at Blue Ridge Community College in Flat Rock, NC from 5:30-8:30pm. There are two training dates to follow on Dec. 2nd and 9th. Volunteers need to attend all three trainings. There is no experience necessary, just a desire to clean up our waterways. For more information contact the French Broad Riverkeeper at Riverkeeper@riverlink.org or 828-252-8474 or signup at www.riverlink.org.