Advocate l Educate l Protect

When Larry Baldwin, the lower Neuse Riverkeeper and I decided to do Tour De Neuse we felt it was important to start at the head waters, where the Eno and Flat Rivers come together to form the Neuse River. We also wanted to feature those who are doing positive things to benefit the river throughout the trip. How appropriate but to start at West Point on the Eno River where the Eno River Association hosts it’s annual Eno River Festival and has worked for 40 years to acquire land along the Eno to help create a wonderful park system along the 33 mile length of the Eno River. Land acquisition along the Eno has helped maintain good water quality. We also wanted our friends at School House of Wonder, located on the Eno River, to help us kick off this 270 mile journey.

School House of Wonder is a great hands-on environmental education program with a focus on water quality, where kids have the opportunity to get in the water and learn about aquatic life in the upper Neuse River Basin.  Neuse River Foundation President and first Neuse Riverkeeper Rick Dove, past President Bill Olah and Executive Director Becky Book were also in attendance.  It was great to see Neuse River Foundation board and staff from the lower Neuse swapping stories river with folks from Eno River Association and School House of Wonder who were more familiar with the upper part of the watershed.

Our departure was slightly delayed because we had to wait for WRAL and WUNC (via phone) to conduct an interview about our journey, but we received a wonderful send-off from our upstream friends.  Larry and Bill started on the Eno at 15/501 Roxboro Road in Durham. However, there was a slight problem—extremely low water levels. When we began planning this trip we imagined high spring flows carrying us all the way to Pamlico Sound. March and April are usually so wet we have to ask the Army Corps of Engineers to hold back water in Falls Dam for our Neuse River Spring Clean up. This year however, was the driest March on record. I was concerned our flat water friends Bill and Larry would be dragging their boats for miles over rocks and logs. None the less, we had a plan and even worse an itinerary we needed to stick to in order to meet other obligations further down stream.

After seeing Larry and Bill off on the Eno River, I headed up to start my journey on the Flat River to eventually meet up with Larry at the confluence of the Eno River where the Neuse River starts its own journey to the Pamlico Sound.  I was joined by H. Gerald Thacker, who wanted to see me off for the start of my journey. Gerald’s farm is a mere stones throw from Lake Michie, Durham’s primary drinking water supply.  Gerald is a real throw back. For more than 40 years Gerald has pretty much stayed to him self, managing his 300 acre farm outside of Bahama. He has several ponds that flow into tributaries that eventually drain into Lake Michie and the Flat River. Gerald and his wife basically live off the land, eating fish (up to 3 times a week, including fish for breakfast) and wild duck harvested from his ponds. He grows various crops for food and eats venison and wild turkey that he and his son hunt from the property. He meticulously manages his land for game and to farm. He takes great pride in how he cares for his ponds to sustain a healthy population of fish. He also feels it is his responsibility to be good steward to the land.

The first time I met Gerald, I laughed aloud when he showed me his outside bath tub. He says he used to have to break through the ice just to take a bath. At the age of 70, he finally felt it was time to install a functional bathroom. Gerald is a new member of Neuse River Foundation. He never considered himself an environmentalist and certainly never donated to any cause regarding environmental protection. He never felt he needed to until an adjacent landowner began to expand his nursery. As Hoffman’s Nursery expanded the number of greenhouses, the overall amount of impervious surface (from green house roof tops) accelerated uncontrolled stormwater run off, causing water quality problems in Gerald’s ponds.

Every time it rained, mud and sediment mixed with herbicides and fertilizers washed across Mr. Thacker’s property into his favorite fishing pond. Each new green house increased the overall amount of runoff, which eventually began to fill in Gerald’s meticulously maintained ponds with sediment. The fertilizers caused a thick coat of green algae to cover the ponds.

Gerald attempted to contact the state and local regulatory agencies. They promptly told him there was nothing they could do because Hoffman’s nursery was not required to control storm water. According to Gerald, he noticed the ducks, geese and other wildlife were no longer coming to his pond.  Yet, he noticed his two smaller ponds on the other side of the property still had plenty of wildlife and no algae.  He contacted regulatory agencies again after getting sick from eating the fish from his primary fishing pond. He inevitably was forced to throw away an entire freezer of fish because he no longer felt comfortable eating the fish from his ponds. For Gerald, his overall quality of life was quickly diminishing.  Like water pollution problems all across the country that negatively impact so many people, Gerald began to understand this natural resource he had take for granted was being stolen from him. Gerald also received a $50,000 estimate to dredge the sediment from his pond. Still, regulators told him once again that there was little they could do. However, one of the regulators pulled Gerald aside and told him to call the Neuse Riverkeeper and that is how Gerald and I came to meet. It’s ironic that the people in charge of enforcing environmental regulations felt his only option was to contact his local Riverkeeper.

Since that time, Neuse River Foundation has helped Gerald document environmental damages occurring on his property and prepared him on what to anticipate next. We assisted Gerald with media coverage, which is often the only tool we have to get bad actors to comply with environmental regulations. Yet, Hoffman didn’t budge. The state eventually issued a Notice of Violation stating Hoffman’s Nursery was directly responsible for the damages to Mr. Thacker’s pond and to remediate to downstream water quality problems.  When Hoffman hired a high powered attorney, the state NC Division of Water Quality wilted. They never followed through with the enforcement action. No fines, no compensation for damages.

I put Gerald in contact with environmental Attorney John Runckle. John has worked for years to represent disenfranchised people like Gerald, who can not afford outrageous attorney’s fees. For now, the case is in a holding pattern waiting to go to court since Hoffman’s Nursery has made it clear they have no intention of controlling pollution from running on to H.G. Thacker’s land.  Gerald calls me periodically to keep me posted and ask for advice.  While he is still extremely frustrated, he at least feels empowered to defend himself against a polluter.

When I told Gerald about my trip down the Neuse River, he had his own story to tell about a journey he took down the Neuse River back in the 1946, long before Falls Dam was built.  When Gerald was 13 years old he and his friend got several planks from the local saw mill. They built a make shift john boat, used tar to fill the seams and set sail from Creedmoor Road/Highway 50.  The water levels were extremely high that Spring, but some how they made it down through the “Narrows” over the Falls of the Neuse down past Gunison rapids on make shift boards held together with nails.

He told his daddy he would probably be a week floating the Neuse. I asked about their supplies, he said they “didn’t bring nuthin, except four fishin’ poles, a 22 rifle and one change of clothes.” They caught fish, shot snakes and squirrels and stole a few chickens from chicken coops along the way. At one point, the water levels got so high they had to float their boat way up into the woods to escape the torrents of water coming down the river. They slept on the wooden ten foot boat every night. The trip took 11 weeks, which finally came to an end in New Bern. When I asked about what his parents thought about his trip, he said his daddy didn’t care.  He called his dad and it took the whole day to drive down (takes two hours now). For a 13 year old boy from Creedmoor, the Neuse Estuary was probably as remote as any far corner of the world.  Needless to say, I found the right person to see me off for my “journey” down the Neuse River.

Gerald made sure to write a check to Neuse River Foundation before I shoved off. He told me he wanted to get some of his other neighbors to sponsor our journey and ultimately the work we do. I was grateful for his company and support. Gerald escorted me down to the Flat river (bare footed).  It was clear he wanted to go with me and fish his way down the Neuse once again. He told me he wanted to come see us on the last day of our Tour on April 29th.  I thanked him, encouraged him to join us, an off I went. The water levels actually looked ok and for a moment, I started to relax and think about the fact we were actually embarking on a 270 mile journey down the Neuse. Last night I was in my office until midnight doing paperwork, reviewing files and taking care of last minute business before I got on the water. I hadn’t thought much about the experience as much as meeting the plans and obligations of the tour.

My relax time quickly ended, when suddenly it looked as though the river dried up and disappeared.  Rocks were everywhere, with a little water sprinkled in between.  I pulled over the rock piles and paddled another ten feet only to pull over some more rocks. I finally gave up, hooked my paddle to my boat and simply dragged the boat over the rocks and through what little water I could find. Only 269 miles to go, walking my way toward Mile Marker 1 at the mouth of the Neuse River.  I thought about Larry and Bill who actually had 9 miles to paddle/walk as opposed to my 5 mile jaunt.  The weather was approximately 80 degrees, so I was actually working up a little sweat.

Finally after a few miles, rocks gave way to water and I began to gain some momentum. Like the upper Flat I had paddled last December, large rock out crops lined the edge of the river in places. Before long the current of the river stopped, piling up against the back water from Falls Lake (Dam).  No sooner had I made some good headway, I received a phone call from the News and Observer asking me why this trip was important. What did we hope to accomplish since “we” all know about pollution problems in the Neuse River? Fair question, but then I thought, “How many people actually know about pollution problems in the Neuse? Do people in Raleigh and Durham understand their pollution from fertilizers and pet waste in their yards, oil and gas from the street, treated waste from their sewage plant all ends up in the Neuse Estuary which has (along with Hog waste and agricultural runoff) caused serious fish kills and human health problems?” I suspect not everyone does and any attention we can focus on the river is important.

My response was simply, we have made improvements in the cleaning up the Neuse over the last decade, but with 500,000 people moving to Wake County alone over the next twenty years and over 1 million projected new residents to the Neuse Basin during the same time frame, water resources in the Neuse will continue to be compromised. We need to keep up the commitment to cleaning up the Neuse River and better manage our water resources. Suddenly we were cut off, but not before we had set a time to meet on Falls Lake on Sunday at 10:00a.m. Rick Dove would be the escort in the Riverkeeper boat as we paddled 23 miles across Falls Lake.

I finally reached the confluence of the Eno River and the Flat River where it all starts for the Neuse.  I turned right and headed up the Eno to meet up with Bill and Larry. It wasn’t long before I reached the Eno River Boat Ramp.  I was surprised to see Rick was waiting for us with Charles Wilson.