I am making this post in an effort to get a little more attention to an environmental issue that we are dealing with here where I live in the Great Smoky Mountains of Tennessee, on the border of TN and North Carolina. I know probably quite a few of you lovely readers are familiar with my posts, but I am just starting on a mission to bring awareness and find more support for our beloved Pigeon River, and this community seemed like a good place for that.
The Pigeon River starts in the mountains of Haywood County in western North Carolina and flows basically northwest into east Tennessee until it meets with the French Broad River, which it is ultimately one of the headwaters of the Tennessee River. The Tennessee River is formed around Knoxville, TN were the French Broad, Holston, and Clinch Rivers join, just a few dozen miles past where the Pigeon and French Broad join.
Like many rural communities around the US and the world,the short term profits of money has outweighed the long term deficits of unsustainable industry, and there is a paper mill in Canton, North Carolina that has been polluting the Pigeon River for well over a century now.
I work for a small nonprofit called CWEET, Clean Water Expected in East Tennessee, that was formed in the early 2000's in order to fight the deadly levels of pollutions that were in "the dirty bird". Blue Ridge Paper is owned by Evergreen Packaging, one of the largest (or the largest) paper producer in the world. Evergreen is owned by Graeme Hart, the richest person in New Zealand. Right now the paper mill's wastewater permit is up for renewal. While this should happen every 5 years, it's been 10. While this permit should be improving the waste process since the last permit, it is actually set to maintain current pollution levels, take in a considerably larger amount of the river upstream to send out as waste downstream, and to remove a color variance that is added in order to help measure pollution levels.
The public commenting period for the permit (which is issued by NC and is governed by the Clean Water Act) is until April 30, 2021. It just takes a simple email to send in a public comment.
While it's unlikely many of you are in TN, or NC, or possibly even the US, the Pigeon River here in Hartford, TN is used for tourism by the whitewater rafting industry, so literally the "public" that uses the Pigeon River is comprised of tourists from around the globe.
Please take just a few minutes of your time, go read the post on @cweet4water's page, and then send your email to the public comments telling how as a visitor or potential visitor to the Great Smoky Mountains area and the Pigeon River you would greatly appreciate the permit being amended before being renewed. If we can get them to see that they will lose more money than they make by polluting, perhaps we can get them to listen.
You can also look on our website HERE
Thank you for reading, and for your time and support. I know that grassroots efforts, unity through diversity, and standing together both locally and globally is truly the only way we will move forward into the paradigm shift of conscious, sustainable living. Happy Earth Day everyday.
