The White Oak-New Riverkeeper Alliance was founded in 2008. At the time there was a strong need for a program that would restore and protect our local rivers. Therefore, a group of concerned citizens joined together to create an alliance for strong advocacy. Our current Riverkeeper and Executive Director, Tess Sanders, was hired to launch our Riverkeeper Program and to be the voice of the White Oak and New Rivers. We are members of Waterkeeper Alliance, which is an international organization, which is comprised of local groups working on local issues, but also partnering together to support larger regional and national ones.
As an Alliance, we have had a great deal of success in many different areas and plan on continuing to do so in the future years.
Below are some of our achievements were most proud of:
- Pure Farms, Pure Waters Campaign: CAFO’s (Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations) are a leading pollutant to our waters by the improper disposal of animal waste. We are constantly working to highlight these practices to the public and applying pressure to government agencies to address the inadequacies of these under-regulated polluters.
- Operation Medicine Drop – A drug take-back program that was started on a local level here in Onslow County to provide a safe and anonymous way for people to dispose of unwanted or unused prescription drugs. This program helps keep these medicines out of our precious waters and the hands of those they were unintended for. After collecting over 280,000 pills and medicines in 2010, we are now funded to bring this program statewide to all of North Carolina.
- Litter Clean-Ups – We hold multiple litter clean-ups along the White Oak and New Rivers annually. We now have a fleet of canoes and kayaks that we provide to our volunteers to use for these events. In 2010, we held 5 clean ups with over 100 participants. We collected 1.25 tons of trash at one clean-up alone.
- We have and will continue to defend against a proposal by ONWASA to inject wastewater into our drinking water aquifer. We have won against highly-paid lobbyists and brought the facts to our legislators.
This is just a small sampling of the work that is accomplished by our Riverkeeper program. Much of our success is due to the diligent efforts of our Riverkeeper, staff, board of directors and volunteers. It has been and will continue to be a team effort to achieve our water quality goals.
